Victory

They are all

dead, my husbands, so now I can choose.

Tonight for the Asian Cup

it's Bill I invite

to come watch.

As we did

a long time ago,

late nights with the kids in bed.

'How good is that goalie?' I say now —

then we score.

A tense game,

the Socceroos against Korea,

tied at the last minute

so now we're into

extra time.

It's almost

as good as that match

when underdog Sunderland

won the FA Cup ('73).

Nail-biting!

Like old times,

my soccer-loving second husband

sitting with me here tonight,

barracking with me.

Like old mates.

Countdown's on —

Queensland election —

right now I don't even care.

We get past that goalie one more time,
and we've won!


Note: My late second husband, Bill Nissen, migrated to Australia with his family at the age of 15, from Holland, where he was being groomed to be a goalkeeper for the national soccer team.  In Australia he followed Aussie Rules football but still liked watching the FA Cup on TV.

(This poem consists of a sequence of mirror-image Maudern cinquains, alternating reversed and normal.)

I'm linking this to both dVerse OpenLinkNight and Poets United's Poetry Pantry #238, where you'll find lots of good poems by lots of good poets.

My Black Cat

My black cat,

my handsome black cat,

the perfect cat for a witch,

is named Levi. His other name is

'familiar'.

When I cast

my magic circle

on the night of the full moon

my black cat is with me, and also

the fairies.

He grows old,

this dear cat. Me too.

Sometimes, when the weather's cold

only the fairies dance, by the light
of the moon.

At dVerse Meeting the Bar this time, Tony Maude invites us to try an extended (or expanded) cinquain with one extra syllable per line than the form invented by Adelaide Crapsey. What this version might be called is still being debated, but the term Maudern cinquain, suggested by one user, is proving popular. Although Tony himself feels it would be arrogant for him to use it. I have no such constraint and am adopting it forthwith. This poem is a sequence of three of them.