Everyone is welcome, playtime is anytime.
Lost in moments of imagination, their common instinct is their dynamic rulebook.
Excitement without words,
where a shriek of giddiness says everything.
There is no boundary.
Everyone is welcome, playtime is anytime.
As the school fence is the only proxy touchline,
the impromptu pitch becomes a seven-sided polygon.
The wall between ash tree and the drainpipe from the girls toilets is the goal,
the crossbar is the extent of an arm:
taller players concede more.
There is no referee.
Everyone is welcome, playtime is anytime.
Who needs arbitration
when you have a dynamic rulebook?
"OK, from now on you're allowed."
Enthusiasm is not constrained,
imperfection is tolerated,
contrition is acknowledged.
What's fair is obvious.
There is no defeat.
Everyone is welcome, playtime is anytime.
The object is just to try:
everybody tries and nobody objects.
Achievement is indefinable.
The scoreline melts into units of smiles:
each result is immediately forgotten.
There is no contesting the teacher's bell.
After the handshakes,
the customary tucking-in of shirt tails.
Same again, next time?
(c) Andrew Halsall Smith, 2018
