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Sunday, June 20, 2010

SOCCERSCAPE

Poem by Charles Frederickson; Graphic by Saknarin Chinayote


World’s most popular sporting competition
Returns to native soiled taproots
Dating backgammon to 1862 Cape
Ivory Monopoly board inlaid ebony

African-can exuberant spirit pan-continental obsession
Townships raging with indomitable pride
Shared passion cheering national heroes
Crime unemployment disease poverty waylaid

There’s no freedom without equality
Fitting tribute to Mandela’s magnanimity
Political prisoner 46664 Robben Island
Security guards reconfigure tourist guides

Mahatma Gandhi re-dyed bleached saris
Multiversity slowly never surely progressing
Generation gaps neutralizing toxic landfill
Greatest legacy Freedom to Dream

Ploughshare furrows digging new ground
Enriched black-dirt sodding green turf
Weah Drogba Eto’o Messi Ronaldo
Soaring eagles unshackled glory daze

Caucasians still running Circus Minimus
Foreign coaches taming cagey lionhearted
Le sorcier blanc over-the-big-top faith healers
Conjuring spellbound elixirs mindset skullduggery


No Holds Bard Dr. Charles Frederickson & Saknarin Chinayote together comprise PoeArtry. Flutter Press has just published Charles’ new chapbook fanTHAIsies.
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