I occasionally make references to 'the beautiful game' as I do like to watch the odd bit of footie now and again.Time for an 'ode' I think:
Myth's river - where his mother dipped him,
fished him, a slippery golden boy flowed on,
his name on its lips.
Without him, it was prophesied,
they would not take Troy.
Women hid him,
concealed him in girls' sarongs;
days of sweetmeats, spices, silver songs...
But when Odysseus came,
with an athlete's build,
a sword and a shield,
he followed him to the battlefield,
the crowd's roar,
And it was sport, not war,
his charmed foot on the ball...
But then his heel, his heel, his heel...
I did like the quote by the author of the poem, Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, when interviewed on Radio 4, 'I'm a lot more likely to watch football than he is to read poetry!'
