Football Poets

World Cup – a year away now.

¶ 1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 Now confusion reigns over World Cup
Jamboree, a celebration of world football
On its highest plinth, the summit of
Genius and greatness
Both former and now latter
But a year hence
They will gather in deserts
Of exotic sands and Saudi
Hospitality
But the World Cup
Near Christmas
Festivities seems
Like snow in July
Roses in November
Just weird incongruity
Not right,
Inappropriate
Like some spiritual gathering
At the wrong time and place
But we will happily embrace
The breathtaking perfection
Of Brazil because their
Ancestors and contemporaries
Have kept the flame burning
One touch passing and football
Taken from the honey pot and
Nectar of foot loose
And fancy flamboyance
Always welcome at football’s
Most sacred tables
A force of nature
Shades of the master
Pele running through
The blood cells of their
DNA, gorgeous impulses
Rather like the emeralds,
Rubies and diamonds
We know so well
A natural phenomena
Almost supernatural
At times,
Then the Germans,
Meticulous in their planning
For any World Cup
No stone left unturned
Pedantic in the grammar
Of the game, lethal finishers
Extraordinaire
Then the show off
Histrionics of Argentina
Part of the South American
Football’s technicolour
Whirl and swirl of fabulous
Fairground
The Italians unpredictable
Hard as rocks, but a flowing
Exhibition of revolt and
Rebellion, A joy to be
In their company
Then Spain
Also of recent gold dust
Full of the spirit of flamenco
The drama of the matador
Luring the bull into cunning
Traps, cruelty perhaps
But daringly demonstrative
And then England
Always a riddle wrapped in
An enigma, not so much a
Mystery, more a model
Of exasperation, not since
1966, Hurst, Peters and Moore
The holiest of trinities
Won the wretched thing
But only because Pickles
Rummaged through back
Garden bushes and there
It was, the gleaming bauble
Jules Rimet, the indisputable,
Glistening gold trophy
The one the world seeks
With compass and map
In hand,
Desperate to be reunited
When England must have
Felt the reconciliation
Was beyond us.
So Gareth please deliver
This festive package
This time next year
Harry Kane knighted
As Orson Wells
Citizen, freedom of
England,
Then Mason Mount,
Declan Rice, Raheem
Sterling in tandem
With ceremonial gusto
Then Jadon Sancho, and
Harry of Manchester United
Robes of red, but now
Patriotically appointed
Grealish, reminiscent of Gazza
But without the belching
At airports, the comic
Posturings,
Grealish, bandy legged
And beguiling, ball
Control at close quarters
Art at so many levels
So next year the World Cup
Will find us overwhelmed by
Heavenly skills from the Olympian
Heights, the epitome of elegance
From the ballrooms and penthouse
Suites of world football
From football’s most pampered
Feet, where the wealthiest
Ambassadors from FIFA
Will keep the World Cup
And its history in flourishing
Health.

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