I saw a soccer ball deflated
near a fencepost. It was
covered
with dirt and mud and moss
and it didn’t look like it had been
kicked
in a great many years

So!

I moved to take the soccer ball
and plucked it from it’s rest,
down in the muck and earthy-scented
earth
and home I went, where
I threw it on the back sidewalk
and left it.

A few days passed, and so did
the memory of my new soccer ball.
It lay in back
the dog did not attack it
nor did anyone bother with the thing

Until

I stepped out back one day
and there it was.
There was nothing else to do,
particularly,
so I took that ball and
I ran it under hot water,
and I took a pump to it
and filled it with air

Now

that ol’ ball plays just as good
as it ever did. But soccer balls
are the only things so
patient