Almanac Poetry: The Night of the Premiership
The Night of the Premiership
(Geelong Football Club wins the 2007 AFL Flag after a forty-four-year drought)
It was strange.
No-one was sure what to do.
Many got drunk.
Pubs spilled onto footpaths.
People spilled onto footpaths.
Beer spilled onto footpaths.
So many were happy,
but couldn’t quite believe it:
after forty-four years
—Sweet Victory!
At midnight in the town centre,
groups walked the streets,
yahooed,
stopped traffic. (But the drivers were patient,
and understood.)
Isolated enthusiasts
ran naked in the suburbs.
But there were no major crimes,
less trouble
than on a typical Saturday night.
The community was too dazed by joy,
light-headed from the lifting
of a lifetime of sporting heartbreak.
We’d survived a vale of tears
and found the Holy Grail.
About
Kevin Densley is a graduate of both Deakin University and The University of Melbourne. He has taught writing and literature in numerous Victorian universities and TAFES. He is a poet and writer-in-general. His fifth book-length poetry collection, Please Feed the Macaws ... I'm Feeling Too Indolent, was published in late 2023 by Ginninderra Press. He is also the co-author of ten play collections for young people, as well as a multi Green Room Award nominated play, Last Chance Gas, published by Currency Press. Other writing includes screenplays for educational films.
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