A Night At The Races

By luigi_pagano

Sat, 28 Feb 2015
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2 comments
 

I haven’t been to Stamford Bridge for ages.
The last time I went they had dog tracks
with greyhounds that were kept in cages;
(I stand corrected they were called ‘traps’).
The animals barked, anticipating the chase,
with the bookmakers shouting the ‘odds'.
The racket that they made was deafening
but to the punters it was not off-putting;
it was part and parcel of the entertainment.
When the ‘hare’ was eventually released,
a band of yapping dogs pursued the quarry.
Traps 1 and 6 were 1st and 2nd favourite
but were soon bumped off by the rest
and a 50-to-one outsider won the race.
The uproar that ensued was unbelievable:
people shouted demanding a blood test
for it was obvious that the contest was fixed.
Objections overruled, the result stood.
The stadium was littered with losing tickets.
As the noise abated, sedately we went home.

© Luigi Pagano 2015

Certificate U
Poem
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Miscellaneous
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Comments

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

I can again almost hear the uproar, contrasted suddenly by the quiet of 'As the noise abated, sedately we went home' and the picture of an empty quiet stadium covered in litter instead. Rhiannon

 

Submitted by luigi_pagano on

Strange how the mind works, Rhiannon. The word 'noise' evoked the memory of a night  at the races long ago. Our social club organised various outings, sometimes to concerts - once to the Derby- and on this occasion we 'went to the dogs'. The atmosphere in the stadium can only be described as electric. We could hardly hear each other over the hubbub of the crowd. The silence that followed at the end of the meeting felt absolute.

Luigi x