clean ball player

We are watching women's basketball

Women's sports are better, we agree.

It still has the heart of long, long ago.

We are watching Caitlin Clark go

"She's a clean ball player." I agree.

I don't what it means but I know it is true.

Like how I do not know how to read lips

But I can see when someone says my name

the shape and form and breath of my name.

What would my name look like

moving through Iowan lips?

I imagine it is tapered and sharp 

We can watch this, captivated,

My pits still smell of the dirt 

                                   and sweat

from tilling the earth this morning

I marvel on the arms 

                   and force,

dribble, dribble, dribble,

of the hose outside,

     birdbath cleaned,

     biscuit and gravy lunch,

     and smocks I ordered 

     from a paper catalog,

hand still covered in ink I smeared as I wrote.