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Juventus 2 Manchester United 3

Bryan Murphy

Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 Juventus 2 Manchester United 3

2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 Strata of after-work smog
filter intermittent gusts of rain
that barely reach me,

3 Leave a comment on verse 3 0 perched in the cantilevered stand
amid local fanatics,
high solitude among sixty thousand,
muting my allegiance,

4 Leave a comment on verse 4 0 senses exacerbated by Amsterdam ganja,
by intense floodlights that heighten
the brightness of the green rectangle
far below: focus of all our hopes.

5 Leave a comment on verse 5 0 I take in the darkening kaleidoscope
of cloud as the sky
signs over to night,
note pre-orgasmic tension
in concentrated faces.

6 Leave a comment on verse 6 0 Below, on the playing field,
Our Boys win against all the odds.
A rarity: the Italian fans
applaud their opponents,
their love of the game
stronger than tribalism.

7 Leave a comment on verse 7 0 The stadium empties – the defeated may return home.
The cleaners move in. Barely a whiff
of nearby Kosovo tinges the pungent night air.

8 Leave a comment on verse 8 0 May 1999

© 1999

Notes

First published in Disquieting Muses, August 1999. I offer it here as a good omen for tonight.

Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/juventus-2-manchester-united-3/