“Ready to Play!” © Bonnie Matthews Brock

 

Next Up!

Heading to pickleball
Ready for the game,
Paddle is in the rack
Awaiting the call of my name.
Next Up!
There is two groups of four
Before I can play,
‘Next up’ are the words
We wait for them to say!
Next Up!
Paddles of every color
Whose owner’s skill vary,
My partner connection
By the hips we should marry.
Next Up!
I hear the p-dink p-dink
And see the lob overhead,
Feeling their frustration
Of the shot that is dead.
Next Up!
That’s me this time
I am ready to go,
Excited to dink, smash and volley
0-0-start lets us greet our foe.
Next Up!
We made 3rd shots,
Drives, and drops,
With poaching and shifting
Reaching spin off the hops.
Next Up!
Winning the game
With smiles all around,
We meet in the middle
Clicking paddles is the sound.
Next Up!
Back to the rack
Our paddles do go,
Waiting for the call
An obsessive game, we know.
Next Up!

 

Janet Green Riley is a retired school counselor and teacher living on Anna Maria Island, Florida who loves all forms of creative arts. She passionately plays and teaches pickleball to enhance mind, body, spirit balance.

Bonnie Matthews Brock is a Florida-based photographer, as well a recently retired school psychologist. She loves hiking the urban and woodland trails of “anywhere” (and pausing often to shoot photos) with her very patient husband (and often collaborator), Ted. Her images have been featured on the covers of magazines such as Ibbetson Street, Wild Roof Journal, Poesy Magazine, Humana Obscura, and Arkansas Review; as well as on the pages of publications such as Oddball Magazine, Ember Chasm Review, Beyond Words Literary Magazine, Beaver Magazine, and Lateral. Her works are archived at institutions such as Poets House NYC, Brown University, and Harvard University.