FOR LIONEL MESSI

...But I couldn’t bar the pressing magic.
Limb, pressing limb
In no overstretch of your skip
I witnessed your football boots hover
The ball. Springing on
Done like scissors diametrics.

Another frenzy! Threading the FIFA
Ball through knee-hollows of
The origin of two defenders
In twinkle. Your opponents must envy.
Then nine breaths past on the left corner line, you
Whizzed the ball in forward thrust.

I saw the ball settling
After passing the opponents head—
Deed of both legs.
Whizkid in the field of play;
In the mid-field
The right foot felt toward
The ball in push, repeated
By the left out of time.
The opponent stood firm,
Tried to retrieve, but became
Disintegrated, wired to the rush
Of a soft ache.

Ripples traverse the imposing stairs
Of Camp Nou, fans cheering
Their voices charging the biosphere.
And here, the trick of zero surrender
As must fix in opponents submission
Was recorded.

[ONIS SAMPSON]