(work in progress)
Cricket is the curse of the bowling class,
an ode:
the catching team an echo,
the batting class a sestina,
the fielding team a muse.
Cricket is the curse of the tea break:
line, length, time, and rhyme,
bad light and rain.
Refrain stops play.
Cricket’s a mug’s game,
a heroic couplet,
yet more of the same.
A Haiku running between stumps,
legs and symbols before wicket
a foot, outside the line,
an Alexandrine.
A forward defense with cadence,
against the seam,
like a no ball, a simile,
Cricket’s a testing game:
the toss,
a full toss
hit for six. Epic.
The cover’s on.
the cover’s off,
a song.
The bat, the pen, the runs, the words,
a coin spins
out comes the side, and the ink.
The follow-on stanza,
mid-on,
mid-off,
side-on.
An innings defeat.
Cricket is the curse of the umpire’s hand,
a satire.
a verse at square leg.
Onomatopoeia.
a mug’s game of innings and googlies.
Pitch, bouncers and reverse swing.
Centuries and ironies.
Ducks and golden pairs.
Stress,
a wrong’un.
Englynion:
Two new openers
batting long boring innings – sleeping time
quite a crime every ball
blocking bowlers, playing crawl
soaking pressure, scoring nothing.
Drift, line, and length.
a flipper and villanelle.
flight through the air.
Cricket is the curse of the leg spinner,
the third man.
The tail, the tale, and off-cutter.
Metaphor.
Wisden’s dictionary.
Ashes and syllables.
Lords, the Gabba,
and the popping crease.