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Event Horizon

Eddie Gibbons

Thursday, July 6th, 2006

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 The stadium rose like a Starship
to meet us, floodlit as a Hollywood filmset.
We felt like extras in a Spielberg epic.

2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 Unrehearsed, but eager for action,
we lifted, weightless, up flights of stairs,
drawn to the high illumined rim.

3 Leave a comment on verse 3 0 Stunned by sheer glamour,
we bathed in the glow,
swayed to the low cathedral chants.

4 Leave a comment on verse 4 0 The pitch was a dayglo tartan baize,
embossed with white geometries –
each corner flagged liked a landmark

5 Leave a comment on verse 5 0 in history; The Poles, Everest, The Sea
of Tranquility, where European evenings
brought lessons in geography, with banners

6 Leave a comment on verse 6 0 from Lyon, Dortmund, Bruges.
Familiar tunes with foreign words
cascaded in their cadences-

7 Leave a comment on verse 7 0 Forza Roma! Allez Les Rouges!

8 Leave a comment on verse 8 0 When the team captains met
in the circle the ref tossed a coin
that twirled in slow motion.

9 Leave a comment on verse 9 0 I wondered if somewhere out there in space
something familiar was taking place-
two teams, a ref, a ball, a coin. An arena

10 Leave a comment on verse 10 0 inside a spacecraft. A game between
Galacticos from opposing galaxies; aliens
feeling like extras on extra-terrestrial terraces.

Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/event-horizon/