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Sixty Second Minute

John Gilbert Ellis

Tuesday, January 28th, 2025

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 With sixty-two minutes played
at a rancid, rainy Selhurst Park,
two photographs appear 
on the jumbo screen, floating 
over the on-pitch preparations
to take a disputed penalty.

2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 Matthew Higgins and Mick Lloyd
sixty-two years of age
eternal supporters, fathers,
stalwarts, drivers and friends,
give us a mirrored reminder
of well lived lives played out
with more than nil-nil intent.

3 Leave a comment on verse 3 0 A minute of gentle clapping
rises in kind acknowledgment
of their coincidental death,
while on the pitch,
the bickering football match
continues oblivious and intense.

4 Leave a comment on verse 4 0 The whistle blows, and the ball
stumbles towards a Palace post.
The penalty kiss and miss
takes the crowd by surprise
enough to break the reverential bliss.

5 Leave a comment on verse 5 0 Claps turn to jeers and boos.
A lifetime chance squandered,
life come breaking in, as usual,
leaves us with the ‘if onlys’ to ponder.

Notes

“I meant to write about death, only life came breaking in as usual.” – Virginia Woolf

Rewritten to include detail about the two people who sadly died and are featured in this poem.

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Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/death-penalty/