Bryan Murphy- A Poem

Italian Spring

Why can’t every day be like this?
11 April 2006:
a mass media manipulator jerked from office;
the Mafia’s main man escorted into gaol.

Why can’t every Spring be like this?
A fresh wind in Italy, 2006.
Immunity and impunity get stripped away
from the feet of fixed footballers,
the G-strings of showgirls,
the cardboard crowns of would-be kings,
& politicos, pararazzi, paedopriests,
TV anchors, radio rectum-rinsers, sporting cheats:
all the pillars of the rotting establishment.

Who does not remember 9 July 2006?
Zidane head-butts Materazzi. Marco collapses,
Italy stands firm
to win the shoot-out lottery.
Cannavaro lifts the Cup. Champions of the world.
The system works!
Spring is over.

In February 2013, that shrivelled season
sends up shoots
from seven years of underground itch.
Power’s pendulum swings back toward the pits;
Parliament pulsates with people’s pressure.
Change warms the alpine air.
The future is open:
fifteen whole months
until the next World Cup.

Bryan Murphy is an Anglo-Irish globetrotter. He recently retired from a job within the United Nations system and now divides his time among England, Italy, the wider world and cyberspace. He is the author of Postcards From Italy, Murder By Suicide, Heresy, Linehan’s Trip and Goodbye, Padania, and welcomes visitors at: http://www.bryanmurphy.eu