The Cost of Referees

It matters not which game you chose to grant 

your fealty to, you’ll need to tame a barefaced 

shrew who’ll turn your courteous benevolence 

into malicious profanity; termed referees, they 

are unable t’ see ‘gracefulness’ in any passes 

delivered with elegance and dexterity, just the 

placement o’ feet in a contrived linear relation 

only their breed o’ beast is competent to see 

The ‘Honour of Contest’ fails their litmus test 

on the behavioural subject of gamesmanship, 

and these characters subjugate the humanity 

of their species t’ a ritualistic code apparently 

know only by privileged few, who wisely stay 

very quiet about it anyway - for later review 

Meanwhile we’re cheering th’ contestants by 

wearing bemused expressions that mirror all 

of their reflective, but suppressed, gestures - 

while th’ refs penalise ‘em ‘at cost’ for being 

‘cuckold in dissent’ about who’s doing what 

to whom - and obviously faking their riposte 

© 24 June 2018, I. D. Carswell