Saturday, May 26, 2018

Faking the Screen, a poem, Indran Amirthanayagam

Faking the Screen

Kneeling on the field or on the sidelines while the anthem
is played will generate a fine for your team.  But if you choose
to stay in the locker room, you will not bother the faithful

and your team will be spared a financial hardship. Not sure
how much money will be charged, and whether the pleasure
of acting freely is worth that cost. It is for you to decide,

as a team, because individual choices cannot be allowed
to disrupt the checked flow of the group,  offense driving
down the field, then defense running out to stop 

the opponent. That is football as it used to be played 
before somebody decided to kneel, thinking of black men 
mowed down in the street for walking in the wrong place, 

the wrong time.  America, when will you wake us up 
from this nightmare and serve the football to all 
your children? Run the play through a color-blind screen?

                Indran Amirthanayagam, c) May 23, 2018

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