The most important thing we ever learn at school is the fact that the most important things can’t be learned at school.
- – Haruki Murakami
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From: Portugal
By: Cyril Pedrosa
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Brick tenements gaze.
Terrace drums pound, rhythms beat.
Christmas fog descends.
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Midnight clouds at noon.
Santa hats spackle the stands.
Scarlet scarves warm them.
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Bengay fills the air.
Mangled meniscus, chilled bones.
Ailments won’t stop us.
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“I mean, it’s like we all get our raw materials from our families-but it’s up to us whether we build bridges or bombs.”
– Antsy Bonano
From a Neal Shusterman classic – The Schwa was Here
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Frosted morning grass.
Rusted goalposts stand alone.
First twenty two play.
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Jack-O-Lanterns rot.
Red bellied squirrels wander.
Dortmund four points clear.
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He draws your attention, even at an inch tall on the TV screen.
His sky blue socks socks sag and rest at his shins, with a fat florescent yellow band sitting just below his kneecaps. Of course, the bands match his highlighter Nike Mercurial Superflys. The number 17 is stitched across his back. Tattoo sleeves wrap his forearms. A red Acqua Lete logo scrolls across his chest. Pirates goatee? Check.
Without the ball he and his mohawk (a mohawk that would strike fear in middle age 1980’s moms) take up positions a few feet in front of Napoli’s centerback pairing – Koulibaly and Albiol, forming a flexible, equilateral, defensive triangle.
In possession he stands between Mbappe and Neymar. He’ll turn with the ball when pressure evaporates, to play into Insigne checking in, to Callejon wide right, or to an overlapping Rui wide left.
To create attacking rhythm and draw out PSG a few more yards he’d again engage with his centerbacks, playing it back first time to Albiol or Koulibaly.
Hamšík trots, power-walks and gallops through the match. But never sprints. His knees stay bent. His feet stay light, ready to cushion incoming passes.
He turned down a Chinese ransom for nights like these. Napoli’s punk rock percussionist still has a role to play.
As observed from Napoli’s 2-2 draw with PSG on 10/24/2018
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How quick can I get these lines down before I’m caught?
Floodlights and Goalposts 