|

Haikus 7 and 8

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 World Cup Haiku 7

2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 “People of the Grass”,
Hear the Setswana language,
See the Bafokeng.

3 Leave a comment on verse 3 0 Edible grasses,
Once grown by the Bafokeng
To feed their cattle.

4 Leave a comment on verse 4 0 Now the Kikuyu,
Hardy grass seed from Kenya,
Then strong rye grass grown.

5 Leave a comment on verse 5 0 Listen to the words!
Poems in the grass and wind
Mock English hubris.

6 Leave a comment on verse 6 0 (The Bafokeng sports complex where England have their training base – the best grass in South Africa and how superior to that wretched surface at our own national stadium.)

7 Leave a comment on verse 7 0 Haiku 8

8 Leave a comment on verse 8 0 Near the football grounds,
Only FIFA’s rich sponsors
Hawk their costly wares.

9 Leave a comment on verse 9 0 All local traders,
Who buy and sell to exist;
Are simply turfed out.

10 Leave a comment on verse 10 0 Global capital
Rides roughshod across the world
To crush seeds of life.

11 Leave a comment on verse 11 0 Watch the spectacle!
The World Cup’s rich narrative!
Miss the injustice.

12 Leave a comment on verse 12 0 See 18 giraffes,
Mbombela Stadium:
For this, schools close down.

13 Leave a comment on verse 13 0 Art of the future,
Just outside a shanty town,
For just 4 matches.

14 Leave a comment on verse 14 0 Outside you will find
No mains electricity,
Nor running water.

15 Leave a comment on verse 15 0 The Mduli Clan
Did not expect this bargain:
But FIFA is pleased.

16 Leave a comment on verse 16 0 Mduli land sold
For “mirrors and shiny buttons”:
But FIFA is pleased.

17 Leave a comment on verse 17 0 The deceit of wealth,
Colonial heritage:
But FIFA is pleased.

18 Leave a comment on verse 18 0 Near the football grounds,
Only FIFA’s rich sponsors
Hawk their costly wares.

Notes

With thanks to David Smith and Anna Kessel for their brilliant Guardian articles that I devoured in Granada in June.

Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/haikus-7-and-8/