Football Poets

Let the goals flow

Let the goals flow
Qatari World Cup
Now awash with goals
Tumbling down mountains
Spain seven against Costa Rica
And then shockingly so
Football’s jawline drops
To its feet of stunned incredulity
Decades of German supremacy
Wiped out by a Japanese whirlwind
A wild gust of Oriental wind
Sweeps through the brittle
Portcullis of Teutonic thoroughness
Japan beat the multiple World Champions
Of days gone by
It was the sentence we never thought
We’d utter in all seriousness
Because this World Cup is suspending
Our belief like a hot air balloon
Floating over Qatari sands of mystique
French romance resuming its courtship
With another World Cup
Quintessentially brilliant as we’ve come
To expect against the outback of Oz
Australia without anything that used
To resemble a Waltzing Matilda
Only the wombats and koalas can
Provide their natural redeeming feature
On their landscape
Maybe Australian Rules is your future
But Australia you still enchant with
Mastery of the red ball and cricket flow
Oh maybe you think we’re just humorous Poms
Looking on from the other side of the world
With admiring eyes from Sydney and Melbourne
While yesterday the Saudis struck a gusher
Powerful fountains of gold, oil and glorious
Victory over Argentina
Yes yet more World Cup winners
From a long time ago
And yet this is history repeating itself
Remember Cameroon of 1990 when the
Pampas and palominos of the South American currency
Lost their verve and vibrancy, Cameroon
Shook the world with football that none of us
Had ever anticipated
So not without precedent
Where are we going with this World Cup?
It’s staggering towards its week old feet
Gripped with raging and miraculous feats
The group stage is unfolding
Like a reluctant petal
Unfamiliar with the time of the year
World Cups at the end of November
They said it would never happen
Seasons confused
But we can hardly wait for more.

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