Stars and Stripes

Their emblem fringed
With gilded scudetti
Bears the weight of history.
This year's addition
Questionable -
Forever asterixed.

Tanka for the Recently Sacked Manager II

Sat rapt in stillness
Like Kitchener lost at sea
An idol for stoics
And in his newfound freedom
He counts trophies in ashtrays.

Deportivo Quito vs Universidad de Chile

A footballing fever dream
Left rapt -
Gasping breath
In that altitudinous arena.
Yellow flashed red
The man he disappeared
Then dazzling snowflakes burst rapture.
Dizzy sick fell the men
Sand in their lungs
Sweat still damp on the forehead.

Stood Before the Firing Squad (Souleymane Camara's Penalty)

As the world roared around him
The pooling eyes betrayed
A doubt that closed off possibility.
For when one man faces another
And the heat of the battle surrounds
Forced to wait
The itch in his fingers perpetuates.

Palpable, the fear
Expressed through shining screens.
A nation watched knowingly
As he stumbled towards his fate.

The Owl is not what he seems.

Flickering on the edges
Of that reality
Only existing in the dull light
Of television
He sat, stage left
Ocassionally panning to centre.

Now his time
In the leading role
Perhaps
The owl is not what he seems.
For a lifetime -
Watching, perhaps
He has gleaned what afflicts
This sorry state.

For Pep

Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world

 

Josep Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.

Josep Dei, you who take away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us.

Josep Dei, you who take away the sins of the world, grant us peace.

 

You, Messianic

In the face of turning trends -

Greece '04,became all in 2010.

You who washed our feet,

Let loose upon that sublime field

The form of God made manifest.

Now stricken you die for us

In the face of Mourinho -

Persistently monochromatic cardigans.

Let down from your cross

On the lips of a thousand apostles

An endless conversation hushed onward.

Josep Dei, you who take away the sins of the world, grant us peace.

Phil Babb Kebab (Isn't It A Pity)

Isn't it a pitta
Isn't a shame
That he crashed into a goalpost
And bought himself some pain
How on the first page of pictures
When you google his name
Is a picture of a kebab
Isn't it a shame.

His career was reasonably good
But how do you explain
How it's boiled down to two images
Isn't it a shame
Due to these cruel twists of fate
People won't ever see
He was an alright defender
Isn't it a pity.

Forgetting Phil Babb now, isn't it a pity?
Forgetting Phil Babb now, isn't it a shame?