Kate Chopin

I was going to mention how Kate Chopin

raised beagles and say her favourite was Lefty

which, coincidentally, is the most

popular baseball nickname of all time.

But, of course, that’s not true. Also not true:

Kate Chopin’s nickname was Katie-Chops.

Chopin lived until fifty-two (that’s old)

and felt great pain at how she was dismissed.

However, her classic, The Awakening,

has this omen of the lover’s impotence:

‘a little finger which he can’t straighten

from having played baseball too energetically.’

If there really was a Lefty the Beagle

he’d be sleeping nearby right now.

And Lefty would ask, ‘Why you want people

to hate baseball like they hate poetry?’