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Thirteen Way of Looking at a Football

Eddie Gibbons

Saturday, February 28th, 2015

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 I
Among twenty two men,
the only moving thing
was the blur of the football.

2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 II
I was of three minds,
like a field
on which there are three officials.

3 Leave a comment on verse 3 0 III
The football whirled in the autumn winds.
It was a small part of the Premiership.

4 Leave a comment on verse 4 0 IV
A man and a woman
are one.
A man and a woman and a football
are one.

5 Leave a comment on verse 5 0 V
I do not know which to prefer,
the agony of deflections
or the agony of bad decisions,
the referee’s whistle,
or his laughter.

6 Leave a comment on verse 6 0 VI
Icicles frilled the long crossbar
with ominous glass.
The shadows of the officials
crossed the pitch, to and fro,
the mood
traced by their shadows
and indisputable laws.

7 Leave a comment on verse 7 0 VII
O weak men of FIFA,
why do you accept golden gifts?
Do you not see how the bidders
run rings around the feet
of the men who run you?

8 Leave a comment on verse 8 0 VIII
I know French accents
(I will write zat uhnly wance).
But I also know
that Jhoey Bartonne is involved.

9 Leave a comment on verse 9 0 IX
When the clearance flew out of sight
it marked the edge
of one of many cantilevers.

10 Leave a comment on verse 10 0 X
At the sight of footballs
glowing with a green light
all the laws of aesthetics
would simply scream.

11 Leave a comment on verse 11 0 XI
He drove over from the Bridge
and parked the team coach.
Once, a doubt pierced him,
in that he mistook
the nonsense of his verbiage
for facts.

12 Leave a comment on verse 12 0 XII
Balotelli is moving.
The pigs must be flying.

13 Leave a comment on verse 13 0 XIII
He was scoring all afternoon.
They were winning,
and they were going to win.
The football nestled
in the nest of the net.

Notes

With apologies to Wallace Stevens.

Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/thirteen-way-of-looking-at-a-football/