They protect your God-given right to

play ball, sweating it out in hot

deserts while you sweat onto grass

groomed for the game. How you share

offense and defence, with leaders

 

who strategize, planning tactics

deployed in the field. Not as many

spectators for their sport, a competition

witnessed only by civilians and stray

dogs. Grenades become footballs

 

thrown in the street, land mines

at the 20-yard line, a flag thrown,

Hail Mary pass. Time-out is called.

They start all over—no one has moved

an inch.

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Julie Mahfood won the QWF 2009 carte blanche Quebec Prize and has also had work in: montreal serai, Literary Review of Canada, Antigonish Review, Room, CV2 & The Caribbean Writer. Julie hosts a reading series and is doing a Creative Writing MA.