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Football, In Most Other Places
I found a picture! Yes, you know the one
—Of you and I, and you're the soccer coach
And I the player, before a game's begun?
—It is, I think, a subject we should broach
—If you don't mind it—just how awful gauche
——The choice... A mother-son! How did it pass
——That either one of us was on that grass?
You'd not before nor I thereafter played.
—And strange to think that given how we are
We would have once conspired (and you were paid)
—To train and strategize, and be on par
With rival kindergarteners, afar.
——But most relationships are weird at first;
——And maybe ours to try was not the worst.
I think of purple sweatshirts, and that cap
—You wore, the goal too big for me to tend,
The crunching leaves and cold that clung like sap,
—And autumn when the colors start to blend.
—And where are we, that never had an end?
——A different season settled over us.
——The kids are gone—though stayed we on that bus!
—Of you and I, and you're the soccer coach
And I the player, before a game's begun?
—It is, I think, a subject we should broach
—If you don't mind it—just how awful gauche
——The choice... A mother-son! How did it pass
——That either one of us was on that grass?
You'd not before nor I thereafter played.
—And strange to think that given how we are
We would have once conspired (and you were paid)
—To train and strategize, and be on par
With rival kindergarteners, afar.
——But most relationships are weird at first;
——And maybe ours to try was not the worst.
I think of purple sweatshirts, and that cap
—You wore, the goal too big for me to tend,
The crunching leaves and cold that clung like sap,
—And autumn when the colors start to blend.
—And where are we, that never had an end?
——A different season settled over us.
——The kids are gone—though stayed we on that bus!
Not familiar with this form. It does rely on some words that can be read with varying numbers of syllables, depending on pronunciation (player, kindergartener). This makes a cute mental image of a kid and mother playing soccer. I don't really understand the ending, though. The mom drives a school bus, maybe?
Thanks for reading. The form is "rhyme royal" which I used not for literary color but for the more cliched association between fall and royalty. The bus is not literal but a new metaphor introduced too late into the poem, perhaps.