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read the excerpt from "how i learned english.”

so it was not impossible that i,
banished to the outfield and daydreaming
of water, or a hotel in the mountains,
would suddenly find myself in the path
of a ball stung by joe barone.
i watched it closing in
clean and untouched, transfixed
by its easy arc before it hit
my forehead with a thud.

how is this excerpt important to the poem as a whole?