Poem: Cricket Practice, Corfu

Cricket Practice, Corfu

In this unexpected outfield

of colonial England, the pitch of dominion

crumbled long ago, though aspects

of its cultural remit linger.

Those bred to the flannel still play

weekend cricket by the town square,

catching tourists unaware.

Even mid-autumn Saturdays harbour

illusions of high summer, cricketers

gambolling on the green, practising

in the footsteps of those long gone,

the sun of their empire

refusing to set.

In Corfu this week-day afternoon,

high school kids under teacherly instruction

work at their bowling on the green.

I enjoy a beer, watching them

from the sidelines as I sit in café shade.

The best by far is a girl about fourteen

with a whip-smart action, all coiled strength

summoned perhaps from Olympian gods

but a little clumsy still, unperfected –

something unyielding to be grown into.

It springs though from hidden depths,

up the bounding line of leg and spine,

the ball carried unseen

until the moment before

she lets it go.

This young girl wouldn’t know

Jeff Thomson’s name of course,

but each step of hers echoes the god of fling

in full flight, unleashing his fearsome bursts.

With time and practice, she too like Thommo

might unsling, coil and crack

thunderbolts across her native turf,

plucking lightning from the earth.

Graham Wood lives in Sydney. A former secondary teacher of English, History and Drama, he was also a cinema film and television program classifier, a government Education advisor, and public servant in the area of higher education policy and planning. His poetry has appeared in anthologies and journals both print and online, in Australia and overseas. Five chapbooks of his poems saw publication with Adelaide’s Ginninderra Press over 2021‒2022, and his full-length collection “Of Moments and Days”, in 2023. Graham’s time is otherwise spent visiting children and grandchildren overseas, on voluntary advisory work in the field of cancer-related health services, and music composition for the highland bagpipe.

Readers’ original and unpublished poems of up to 40 lines can be emailed, with postal address, to [email protected]. Submissions should be in the body of the email, not as attachments. A poetry book will be awarded to each accepted contributor.