Scorecard Poem by Charl JF Cilliers

Helplessly I watched you
contrive the ball around
my clumsy feet and dribble through
my wide-open defenceless ground.

That’s how it was between the two
of us in everything we played.
I feigned interest because I knew
it was the only route by which to make the grade.

But even when occasionally I would make
(mostly unintentionally) a scintillating move,
it never could outweigh all the mistakes
on the long arid scorecard of your love

except perhaps with these words you never heard me speak
- and cannot now – as at last I almost turn the other cheek.