Almanac Poetry: ‘On the Death of a Famous Cricketer’ by Geoff Page

On the Death of a Famous Cricketer

 

What gap in our collective soul

Would make us want to deify

One decent, private sort of bloke

Who could have boasted to the sky

 

But never once was less than modest,

A man who kept all things to scale,

Who stayed within his expertise

And always answered all his mail?

 

Why is it we would make a god

For being merely twice as good

As all the world before or since

As hitting balls with bits of wood?

 

Perhaps it’s an Australian truth,

A local trophy on the shelf.

Get all the runs in life you can …

But, thankyou, don’t big-note yourself.

 

 

 

Geoff Page