Almanac (Footy) Poetry: April 25th 2018

 

APRIL 25th 2018

 

Facebook a digital
Field of poppies
Someone died
To be pixelated
By an unknown
Relative in a suburb
That didn’t exist
In 1915

He died for
My freedom
Apparently
I didn’t ask
Him to and
Yet I’m grateful

My parents lost
Their villages
In World War 2
North Epirus
Never again
To be seen

They came to
Collingwood
Ah Collingwood
Football’s Pandora
The ills of footy
Firmly sealed for
Three years

Today I heard
A rattle
And saw hope
At the MCG
Dina cried during
The Last Post
ICU Varcoe
Bandaged like a
Hero of old
De Goey opens
The way for
Treloar, Pendles and
Sidebottom to cut
A swathe through
Essendon’s midfield
Cox rising above
His confidence
As Bucks kept
The faith we
Had lost
Defending our
Ignorance in the
Bigger picture
Murray’s pace
Maynard’s grit
Crisp’s precision
Brodie’s groundwork

This is a new
Collingwood and
Pandora’s curiosity
Is being roused
Again

At 6:00pm
Next Sunday
She may open
That box
Lest they
Forget

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About Phillip Dimitriadis

Carer/Teacher/Writer. Author of Fandemic: Travels in Footy Mythology. World view influenced by Johnny Cash, Krishnamurti, Larry David, Toni Morrison and Billy Picken.

Comments

  1. Luke Reynolds says

    Love it Phil.
    Maybe this is a new Collingwood. They’ve given us a glimpse, teased us the past couple of years. Hope that rattle becomes much louder.

  2. Go the Tigers!
    Go the Tigers!
    Go the Tigers! x

  3. E.regnans says

    Ahh, Pandora.
    What hope is this? What have you given us now?
    Perfect, Phil.

  4. That cursed thing called hope.

    Is Bucks a genius or just a naughty boy?

  5. Why do only Magpies write poetry? HB; DB and now LB. (I’ve had a few goes but PB is just western states doggerel).
    Loved it. You captured the history, the occasion and the new Pies (or should that be Tigers Mk2) perfectly.
    It was so good it read like Haiku Bob with verbal diarrhoea.

  6. DBalassone says

    Like.

    What is it about Varcoe? He reminds me of Barabbas on the run.

  7. Brilliant opening, and all the bits of it.

  8. Phillip Dimitriadis says

    Thanks folks. All I know is that yesterday I felt excitement of Big Kev proportions. Or was it Ken Bruce? Either way, it was one to savour. Onward wayward sons of Collingwood !!

  9. Cool Phil, do you reckon you can add two further stanzas on the Anzac day poem?

    One recognising that twice Australians voted no in plebiscites on conscription, acknowledging the 1st AIF was the only all volunteer army in WW1.

    Combine this with a stanza about the frontier wars the Australian inhabitants fought to protect their land from the invaders: Us.

    Over to you Phil.

    Glen!

  10. DBalassone says

    At the risk being self-indulgent, and shifting focus from Phil’s brilliant post above, here’s a little piece I wrote a few years back (it’s a bit rusty, I know):

    https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/poem-family-war-song

  11. Phillip Dimitriadis says

    Nice work Damo. Didn’t realise you were such a radical! Green left and all.

    Glen ! Here goes:
    ANZAC Eve 1915
    Pies beat Dons
    At Vic Park
    Myths and Legends
    24 hours away
    From forming in
    The mind of those
    Left behind
    The Arch Bishop
    Prays for
    More time
    His mob are
    Winning
    For now

    Behind banners and
    Flags of Australia
    Fair lips remain
    Dry to an anthem
    That insults our
    Intelligence and
    the memory of
    Those who died
    Defending their
    Land from rum
    And Bible peddlars
    History
    Faded to black

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