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Before Game Seventeen Begins

Alun Robert

Monday, March 14th, 2016

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 In the lost land, lost Arthurian land of Lyonesse
two football clubs compete just a tad differently as
ninety minutes lie ahead with nothing between them
eight wins a piece with everything to play for

2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 brothers, their fathers and fanciful neighbours
in pursuit of victory at the summit of this season

3 Leave a comment on verse 3 0 with grass cut too short, lines marked in off white
deep puddles in profusion for its Sunday rain again
as a partisan fifty souls congregate along the flanks
wearing their favours while chanting their anthems

4 Leave a comment on verse 4 0 when out come the teams to fanatical acclaim
Garrison Gunners versus Woolpack Wanderers
at the Garrison Field on St Mary’s Island
for this is Scilly football (very silly at its best)

5 Leave a comment on verse 5 0 and betwixt them are officials regaled in pure black
three villains en route to a frolic of faux pas

6 Leave a comment on verse 6 0 without capture by video although on social media
for i-phones are recording for posterity, for bragging
though this isn’t Jules Rimet – just the Isles League
contested by two clubs in a season long conflict

7 Leave a comment on verse 7 0 as up stride the captains of valour and integrity
with eye to eye contact yet body language of friends
to shake and to toss a guinea for to choose
the first end to guard, the first end to attack

8 Leave a comment on verse 8 0 in the ides of March where bewaring is absent
from twenty two gladiators in a caldron of mud

9 Leave a comment on verse 9 0 for no Corinthian spirit is displayed at the Field
as today is about winning after a long campaign
and this is the climax – essence of an existence
at a place like nowhere, nowhere else in England.

© 2016

Notes

Somewhat unique season-long football competition played out between two teams on the Scilly Isles

Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/before-game-seventeen-begins/?shared=email&msg=fail