CHAMP OR CHUMP

He snarled, gripping
The baseball like an amulet
Trying to divine my mettle.

Mud-faced boy
Skin-kneed girl
Didn’t you choose for me?

Champ or chump?
Leap frog wild into my
scalding liquid kettle
Show me your mettle.

You’re no sorcerer
You’re a brute with a bit
In your hollow teeth
Yoked by machismo
You slosh in and out of
Your cups.

No champ
Just my dad
In the backyard
Bullying his wide-eyed child
Under the weeping willow.