'Football Wives'

I met one once in Ipswich -
city of god and morgages -
she was a school librarian
unremarkable
but for her Italian shoes
and sculpted hair.

She was pleased she was a Q'ld wife.
They worked, didn't just gym, wax and shop
waiting for the Brownlow.
The Q'ld wives had barbeques on the weekend
looked after each others kids
while the game was on
and cried together over a kilo too many
a goal too few and a wayward husband.
Then they pat their beautiful hair
breathe in and
flex the toes of their perfect shoes
ready for the next match.

Melbourne is the football capital of Australia and this was written in response to The Word Tree's football poem competition. The Word Tree had the dubious honour of being on at the same time as the AFL Grand Final this month - never a good idea for a poetry gig! So we ran a football poem competition. I am delighted to announce I was co-winner of this competition which was independently judged by the Word Tree feature of the day, Vicki Thornton and Tuesday Poem blogger and Word Tree committee member Jennifer Compton. Congratulations, Jennifer, on your new poetry collection, The City.