Winning
Contest
absorbs a billion people world wide --
and I who avoid sport events
except for Olympic swimming
find myself hooked on world cup soccer
gold shoes, a cream and golden leather ball --
the glittering gold phallas when it’s over,
gorgeous men kissing it, jumping, dancing
long waving crowd songs.
I hardly understand the game
but watch, fascinated by the pageant.
Zinedine Zidane -- "Le Monde"
calls him "une icône française" --
head butts an opponent
during the second overtime
and gets kicked out of the game.
He is 34,
has said this will be his last game,
was injured in the first minutes,
again two thirds through,
so maybe he was tired of hurting.
Maybe he threw the game
on purpose,
maybe he wanted the world
to know France couldn't win
without him.
Why would a world class athlete
intentionally get thrown out
of a world cup championship game?
Possibly he wanted something more
than he wanted to win --
Even if he just lost his temper --
maybe it was a racist remark, or worse --
intentionally, or not,
at the height of what a world
class soccer player can hope to achieve,
Zinedine Zidane walked
away from the biggest win
in the world,
as if there were something more important
than winning,
as if one billion people in the world
could imagine that..
©Susan Bright
Susan Bright is the author of nineteen books of poetry. She is the editor of Plain View Press which since 1975 has published one-hundred-and-fifty books. Her work as a poet, publisher, activist and educator has taken her all over the United States and abroad. Her most recent book, The Layers of Our Seeing, is a collection of poetry, photographs and essays about peace done in collaboration with photographer Alan Pogue and Middle Eastern journalist, Muna Hamzeh.
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posted by SB @ 7:47 AM
3 Comments:
This doesn't have anything to do with soccer, or today's post really, but I'm starting to find it curious as I collect stories about plants and animals "migrating" north, that so few of them make any connection to climate change. Here's another one:
Southeastern Gecko found in Kansas
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060710/ap_on_sc/new_gecko
I was encouraged by OZ's post on how/what we can do to begin preparing/adapting to the changes. It's been on my mind more and more lately, as I start to shift my way of thinking about the coming years and how we're going to survive -- and thrive.
Thanks,
Rosalie O'Leary
Neosho, Missouri
Americans are so arrogant they had baseball announcers calling the soccer game on ESPN and then when the final game came on.. THE REAL SUPER BOWL they ignored it. No wonder everyone loves to hate us. I bet every dish washer in Asutin or any town in Texas can recall every minute of that game and the infamous (now) head butt that got the French star red carded and tossed out of the game. Great post Susan.
Iggoe
Thanks for your comments. I was struck by the world face of the French team, and thought about immigration policy, about riots in the streets of France recently, in contrast to the "Italian" look of the team from Italy --and the more I think about it, I wouldn't be at all surprised if the offending comment was a racist remark, or political accusation -- and if so, I wonder if justice wasn't the issue, the thing more important than winning?
I just guessing.
By the way Zidane received the most valuable player of the games award.
SB
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