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England v The U.S.A.

Stuart Butler

Sunday, June 13th, 2010

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 You know how it is, some nights you just can’t sleep:
The wife went out to the pub to watch the game last night,
I stayed at home and tired after work,
Fell asleep at 10 only to be woken by Trish at 1;
She gabbled on and then daughter and boy-friend got home at 2,
Worried that they might have locked the dog out,
I went downstairs, opened the back door,
And there was the Milky Way in all its lustrous glory,
Star-spangled luminous, numinous multi-layered banners –
It was one of those OMG Milky Way moments,
That even dyed in the wool atheists can get,
When you stare open mouthed at the sky,
When your mind reflects on how one’s view of that vast canopy,
That immense, mind-blowing panoply,
Shifts and alters dependent on where one is on this spinning orb,
Stimulating the inevitable thoughts about perspective, partiality, truth, etc
It made me think of Charles Mason, of the Mason-Dixon Line,
Late 18th century resident, Oakridge parish, near my dear old Stroud,
The astronomer working on his lunar tables and latitude at sea,
Observing the transit of Venus from the Cape of Good Hope:
There is a crater named after him on the moon –
I hope I’m over it tonight.

© Stuart Butler

Notes

Oh dear. Feet left firmly on the ground. Terry Firma, I suppose.

Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/england-v-the-u-s-a/