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Anxiety Before The Penalty Shoot-Out

Graham Salter

Monday, June 30th, 2014

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 (as told by T.S. Eliot)

2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 Sudden Death is something you can’t prepare for
Said Bobby Robson long ago.
That time has come again.
Now we are the team, the scarecrow men
Leaning together
Arrayed like starlings on a wire
(One stares
Another hides his eyes behind his arm)
Time yet for a hundred visions
For revisions and indecisions
I have measured out my steps with trembling feet
Have worked and practised, practised and dreamed
Seen glory, triumph, victory, fame
But do I dare?
Do I dare place it to his right?
High in the corner? Low to his left?
Oh, do I dare?
Between the thought
And the execution
Falls the shadow.
Your shadow striding behind you as you stride
Your image rising to meet you as you walk
Your image caught on camera across the screens
No matter. Go
Through that shadow
Go
To your mark
And SCORE!

Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/anxiety-before-the-penalty-shoot-out/