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Optimism and Pessimism

Stuart Butler

Sunday, March 2nd, 2003

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 We all know about the one about optimists and pessimists
And whether the glass is half full or half empty –
And it all depends on how you look at it,
But you never know just what’s around the corner,
Although every cloud has a silver lining,
Doesn’t it? Doesn’t it?
So when the day started with a frosty walk through the churchyard,
(The sort of churchyard that unscrolls, gravestone by gravestone,
Changing fashions in Christian names, from the 18th century onwards)
And when I spied my first two primroses of the season,
Hiding in the dark shadowed entrance to some minor gentry’s mausoleum,
My naturally melancholic disposition saw it as the primrose path to death –
It was only later in the day, when at last in Barcelona,
That Persephone’s spring time escape from the Underworld sprang to mind,
As I gazed at all the cruel-caged singing birds whilst walking down the Ramblas,
(I wonder how the Robins are getting on – must be half-time – 1 nil up I reckon )
Before ordering a pint and a half of Guinness in big screen “Molly’s Fair City”
(Arsenal 4 nil up after 20 minutes! 8 Euros 80 for the Guinness!)
But I cheered up when seeing the 50 metre high statue of Christopher Columbus,
Allegedly marking the spot of his first returning footfall,
Nonchalantly surveying his Christian compassed carnage,
But a mistake in the design means he is looking towards Libya, not America,
But what do you expect from a navigator who thought Haiti was Japan?
I cheered up even more that same evening, eating out in the square,
At a table where my hour-glass was never empty,
Watching boys politely kick a football across the plaza,
Where well heeled men and women left the restaurant queues,
To show off their soccer skills, too, under a star struck Barcelona sky,
While the cafes were filled with fans staring at the screens,
As Barcelona at last returned to form,
Escaping from their winter languor.
The next day I travelled to the Nou Camp,
Discussing last night’s 4 nil win with some Dublin rugby fans,
Before alighting at the Cathedral,
To walk past the beggars and the automated candle machines,
Where just like Molly’s Fair City,
The mass was relayed to the devoted crowd by video and big screen –
I went outside and took the plunge by the holy water,
And sheltering beneath the gargoyled flying buttresses,
I opened the Sunday paper and glanced at the results,
And there it was, Port Vale 1 Swindon 1;
An away point gained or two points lost?
Is the glass half full or is it half empty?

© Stuart Butler

Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/optimism-and-pessimism/