by Indran Amirthanayagam
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| AI animation by Nightcafé for The New Verse News |
Yes, this is a poem dribbled, crossed, headed, corner and free kicked
This is the beginning of the month that will never equal any other
period in time: The World Cup in North America, in Mexico
with families gathering to ask for news of loved ones disappeared,
to ask for electricity, to ask for justice and to ask for tickets;
In Canada, all quiet for the moment, a tranquil backwater, a pause
between acts. But over there in the Great Bearish United States,
denying entry to a Somali referee, claiming an official Iraqi photographer
has ties to terrorists, and eleven US cities handed extra costs by FIFA,
excluded from sponsorships that compete with FIFA contracts,
and local taxes removed from ticket prices. As the saying goes,
FIFA takes the loot and host cities are left holding what?
A bunch of memories, some extra grass in stadiums, and something
more ineffable, beautiful: pride in hosting teams from far away lands
in our corner of the planet, spinning the web to capture the butterfly,
not a bad use of taxes to be left holding the woven bag.
Indran Amirthanayagam writes a Substack. He has just published Isla itinerante ( Editorial Apogeo, Peru, 2025) and White Space Sonnets ( Sarasavi publishers, Sri Lanka, 2025). His other publications include El bosque de deleites fratricidas ( RIL Editores), Seer (Hanging Loose Press),The Runner's Almanac (Spuyten Duyvil), Powèt Nan Pò A: Poet of the Port (Mad Hat), and Ten Thousand Steps Against the Tyrant (Broadstone Books). He is the translator of Kenia Cano’s Animal For The Eyes (Dialogos Books) and Origami: Selected Poems of Manuel Ulacia (Dialogos Books). He edits The Beltway Poetry Quarterly, hosts the Poetry Channel on YouTube, and publishes poetry books with Sara Cahill Marron at Beltway Editions.
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