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GAMESTERS
Godashiva
Indulcina Intraspecti
Shawnatelli Libera Gazella
Tamarina Alexibicari Portomia Luntobene Insurgi
Godashiva, goalkeeper and netted, she’s just back from hell, watched the fire and extinguished it all by herself. She’s that cool, all nerves settled with the attacking striker’s mind, a cat, a catcher knowing her enemies better than herself and her fiancé.
Indulcina and Introspecti, both are steaming as if they’re supposed to defend the rights of girls in public places. In case a ball is to pass their system, they act decisively realizing that not giving in is – believe it or not - a sport, too.
[HALF-TIME]
JACK:
(stretching his neck to try to see over others) Shit! This line is not moving at all. We are no closer to the beer than we were ten minutes ago.
JOCK:
Hold my place I’ll go look. (He steps out of the line and stands facing the front of the line with his legs spread in a secure stance and his arms folded across his chest. Other guys in the line watch him from the corners of their eyes and prepare themselves to defend their places in case he decides to push in ahead of them.)
JACK:
(his attention is riveted on Jock waiting on a response. Jock seems completely entertained by the action at the bar and the waiting watching from the others in the line. Jack shifts his feet back and forth and tries to peer around the large, lardy guy in front of him. The longer Jock is out of the line, the more nervous he becomes.)
JOCK:
(Shaking his head in disbelief starts back to his place in the line while telling Jack) That guy must be buying drinks for his whole office.
lunchtime Mills College, Berkeley
only female students
at the pool
they feel amphibious diving naked
missing the softness of quicksand
toes up toes down such early toys
pearls more shiny leaving the waters
as they return to study
and because love never comes cheaply
we work, clean up, and endure silence
we who pay the bills or keep the house
with wrinkled fingers on smooth flatware
alone and yet together as are nuns
who weave winter cold through bare twigs
together and yet even more alone
dry tears, sighed fears, restrained joy
the cost of a few mail-order trinkets
knotted at the neck with eraser marks
more time given to the strategies
that burst bitter skins against the thirst
carefully written on handmade paper
fingers acquire the art of sifting time's dust
the shape of security committed
to tidy edges of hawks preying on snakes
feed the cat and bark at the dog
quite overcome by their glances
to ignore the irritations of older habits
raw from spring thaws are unfocused eyes
the wind that brings the heart to wander
severed from its own throbbing flesh
hours of listening to the roaming desires
burst from their shells with red wings
the reins of inertia on the horses of desire
hot intense for the savory flesh withheld
sun sizzle on dusty metal shines red
rock twisted at the earthquakes' core
Rumi tracks
around their wet feet
the very path
she takes her nose ring off
blitz and thunder on the Bay
JINX:
(The voice comes from an even bigger guy behind JACK) Wait just a minute Buddy. You cannot barge in here.
JOCK:
(very calmly) You are mistaken, sir. I had this place in the line and only stepped out to see what was holding it up.
JINX
(his calmness only very lightly covers a seething anger) You leave the line. You are out. Leave.
JOCK
(instantly angry and aggressive) Hey! What gives you the right to tell me what to do?
JINX
(holding up a tattooed fist at the end of a muscle-bound arm) This.
Libera, an Indian child from the Occidental Andes, used to look far ahead and farther, combines the surprise of the very moment with the unthinkable techniques of an angel in progress – punished to live on earth much longer after testing positive for anabolic steroids.
Left runner Gazella and right runner Shaunatelli, during weekdays loaning their slender legs to Lagerfeld’s fashion show in Acapulco – now here again, they keep sprinting shamelessly tricky.
Portomia, center striker, learned how to kick from any position. Once she discovers the gap, this same gap is mysteriously stealing the ball from her foot and swallows it up into the goal.
With her inside right, Alexibicari, with whom she shares the game’s spirit, she suddenly can disconnect from older beliefs held for long but now occurring as unreliable in this given situation. Then they are what they have in conjunction: four eyes, four ears, two breaths.
The inside left, Luntobene, a mestiza and the fastest of all South American female footballers, sends the leather to Tamarina, outside right - she serves Insurgi, the short-haired outside left, only seventeen years young – she makes the defender stumble over the line, flag up – corner-ball.
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