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Who are these People?

Denys E. W. Jones

Tuesday, August 16th, 2011

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 Esposito, Fiorani, Fogagnolo, Casiraghi, Soncini.
Who are these people?
Principato, Del Riccio, Temolo, Vertemati, Gasparini.
What are these names?
Galimberti, Ragni, Bravin, Mastrodomenico, Poletti.
Have they some claim to fame?
Are they perhaps a football squad or team?
So it might seem, but no.
Maybe a rugby Fifteen?
Could be, but not so.
A list of all-time greats from Serie A?
Nice try, they are not that.
Managers then, gaffers?
I’ll tell you, else you’ll go crackers.
They’re names of captured Partisans,
All shot in August Forty-Four,
Hand-bound to posts or lined against a wall,
Their bodies then left on display, or so they say.
They thus are out of place on this website,
Which usu’lly deals with football’s lows and highs,
And talks of triumphs, tears, tactics.
Yet some perhaps may need reminding still:
Not all Germans were Nazis.
Not all Italians were Fascists.

2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 16/8/11
Denys E. W. Jones

© 16/8/2011

Notes

I wrote this after reading a poem by Salvatore Quasimodo entitled Ai Quindici di Piazzale Loreto (To the Fifteen of Piazzale Loreto).

Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/who-are-these-people/