Bases

I overheard a conversation

Between two older men

Regarding bases and relationships.

One, named Phil, bragged

He’d reached five-hundred

The other, Ted, had claimed a thousand.

“Excuse, me,”

I naively interjected,

“Aren’t there only just the three?”

They laughed the way

A parent laughs at children

Discovering their world.

“When you’re young,” said Phil,

“But as you age you’ll see

There’s so much more.”

Looking at the lines and wrinkles

On their skin I saw these extra “bases”

Exceeding the mere three I knew.

The crease above Phil’s eye

Might have been the stress of paying rent

Together with his wife.

Ted’s sagging cheeks

The grief brought on

By raising kids.

First, second, third,

Were fading memories,

Irrelevant.