Picture a vessel, adrift neverending oceans:
peacefully, it embarks, rocking...rocking...emotions
tranquilly ebbing, just easily riding along,
waves intoning longing lullabyes in song.
Envisioning nature's calm aquatics, romantic nostalgia arouses completely inaccurate oceanic notions.

Undersea reality belies its nostalgic appeal.
Life offers only pain; environments reveal
rough options: defeat, ruin, injustice, grief--unsatisfied emotions. Zero
habitats offer luxury, leaving alternatives nobody desires. Sometimes, wistfully, one rare, true hero
can avoid suffering, thereby inspiring life's lamentable ordeal.

Heroes are required. Regret, illness, shame,
heartache, evil: living life is no game
featured on Xbox;
but all needles, kicks, shocks--
real experiences. Defiance merits a name:

Marlin! Overcoming real dangers, even competitors are impressed:
giant obstacles neatly zapped, a lightweight exhibiting zest,
bearing each confinement keenly; escaping, then thanking
powers eternal; nurturing; never yanking
chains; achieving breakthrough results, excellence rightfully assessed.

Basically, unless Marlin pretends
courage overcoming nasty impediments naturally extends
life, our willpower evaporates. Little lies
replace evidence, disable memory. Optimism never dies,
lest existence ends.

Just when fans conquer their fear,
And start to think, "This is the year",
Some Dent, Boone or Beckett
Will show up and wreck it:
Still Waiting for Goats to appear.

Nightmares arose from our innocent dreams,
From childish wishes on shimmering stars,
Once-cheerful faces disfigured with scars,
Our laughter transformed into ghastly screams,
Tricked by mirages which won't quench our thirst,
Our seeds get planted but fail to take root,
Our hungers fed by hollow, rotten fruit--
We're destined to want, and thereby we're cursed.

Five more outs. Just five is all we needed.
We hoped. We prayed. We begged and we pleaded.
They never came, and now we're left haunted
By ghosts who curse us for what we wanted.
Our curse is not to fail, it's not to cry,
Our curse is just an echo: Why? Why? Why?

Rosters for Jack and Dusty:
Remlinger, Cruz, Guthrie,
Penny, Banks, Lofton,
Beckett, Bump, Simon,
Bako, O'Leary, Borowski,

Wood, Alfonseca, Tejera,
Mordecai, Conine, Cabrera,
Goodwin, Lee, Willis,
Rodriguez, Miller,
Clement, Sosa, Urbina,

Redman, Redmond, Ramirez,
Encarnacion, Veres,
Glanville, Harris,
Lowell, Karros,
Grudzielanek, Martinez,

Prior, Pierre, Pavano,
Gonzalez, Gonzalez, Zambrano,
Fox, Hollandsworth,
Helling, Farnsworth,
Looper, Alou, and Castillo.

Rosters for Little and Torre:
Mueller, Millar, Mirabelli,
Mussina, Matsui,
Arroyo, Dellucci,
Damon, Almonte, Merloni,

Boone, Posada, Giambi,
Garciaparra, Embree,
Johnson, Burkett,
Jackson, Pettitte,
Clemens, Kapler, McCarty,

Heredia, Lowe, Ramirez,
Timlin, Ortiz, Contreras,
Rivera, Rivera,
Soriano, Sierra,
Garcia, Suppan, Martinez,

Williamson, Wakefield, Wilson,
Williams, Walker, Wells, Nelson,
Flaherty, Varitek,
Jeter, Jones, Sauerbeck,
Weaver, White, and Nixon.

Snow travels lightly
But falls hard, stuck there, stranded,
Until the spring thaw.