Game day
Thanks to friends and teammates for your ideas!
When you get your hair pleated, eye-burstingly tight,
your pulse pounding to changing room tunes.
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When your shorn nails pant through the warm up,
and you realise the whole game is still to play.
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When you nerve and breathe and need to pee the moments
before kick-off, praying the ball won’t come to you,
o
too scared you’ll drop it. When the first tackle splats
you in the icy mud, and you’re shocked and nearly
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too lazy to get up, but your fly-half ships
the ball out, and the winger makes a break,
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punts it to the try-line, opposition falling
at her ankles as she scores.
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When there’s a knock-on and your pack
prowls to the scrum, growling we’ve got this.
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When your hair tie’s slowly coming loose,
fringe creeping over eyes, until
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halftime: orange slices, breathing hard,
told off and encouraged and it all begins again.
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In the lineout, when codes are shouted to confuse
but the hands holding you up are strong
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and certain. Everything goes right. When the ball
smacks your palm, then off to your scrumhalf.
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When a girl runs at you, ball in hand, and
you slo-mo see that she’s stepped you a belter –
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you land face first in the dirt, mortified,
until your teammate halves them:
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you thank fuck for which team you’re on.
When, knackered, you think it must be close
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to done, but the ref says that’s us ten minutes in.
When, determined to make up for a missed tackle,
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you hit hard, in sync with your teammate,
who shoots you a gumshieldy grin.
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When suddenly the game is almost over.
When your team is ruler straight on your own
ten metre line, having slugged a scrappy match –
every single one of you defends your tits off.
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The hugs and handshakes, team photos.
When you clack clods of dirt from your boots
before the changing rooms. When your waning
adrenaline brings you to tears on the toilet.
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When you peel off a damp bra, listening to Lizzo,
scrubbing at your muddy icy skin in a beautiful
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hot shower. When, win or lose, you sing and booze.
When your team’s so close they help you write a poem.
3 replies on “Game Day”
LOVE IT, you’re such a talented queen 😘
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I can feel the team pulse, tension and joy !
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How to put a match into words, well done Skye, you nailed it!! 😉
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