Almost!

 

 

Almost is not good enough

A miss is as good as a mile,

Don’t ever be mistaken

A frown will never be a smile.

 

“Almost!” we so often hear

And so often we will repeat,

There is no thrill of victory

Just the agony of defeat.

 

Second place is a loser

Just like third or even last,

However near you have come

There is still one to get past.

 

Victory was still elusive

And no gold medal to show,

Though second in the race

Honours to the winner goes.

 

Almost is not good enough

A miss is as good as a mile

In the list of the top honours

You will not be in that file.

 

With just a little more effort

I would have been the first

But the reality of the matter

“Almost” is like a curse.

 

Like the West Indies team

Almost means they are close

But at the end of the match

Nothing of which to boast.

 

It is as near as they come

To winning a cricket game,

Almost means not beaten badly,

It is no winning refrain.

 

Perhaps you might have heard

Of the boy who lost a quarter

“I almost found it,” he had said,

I couldn’t contain the laughter.

  

A valiant effort was put in,

They almost saved his life

But almost brought no consolation

When they told it to his wife.

 

No stone was left unturned

To his rescue many had come,

Almost they had pulled it off

But his life on earth was done.

 

From racing to losing money,

From cricket to a life lost

But the final episode I will share

Speaks to an eternal loss.

 

Almost will be a cry of anguish

Like none ever heard before,

“Another chance please, I beg,

Tell it to me once more.”

 

To what am I referring?

It is important that you know

Lest at the end of this poem

You say nobody told you so.

 

King Agrippa was one

Paul had witnessed to him,

“Almost, thou persuadest me,”

He replied, regarding his sin.

 

A rich man was another

To Jesus he came one day,

Almost saved but he walked away

His wealth o’er him held sway.

 

You who are reading this

“Almost” need not be your cry,

It certainly will be I assure you

If Jesus you continue to deny.

 

A day of reckoning is coming

Whether you believe it or not,

Let it not be “Almost”

That will be a horrendous shock.

 

Stewart Russell © August 2019

 

We Need an Answer

 

 

What’s wrong with our team?

Pray tell!

For a while now

We are not doing well.

 

Oh, we look stylish, though,

And we hit many sixes

But the remedies we employ

Are surely not fixes.

 

I heard via social media

We had a new administrator

But after reading to the end

I burst out in laughter.

 

He was a Chinese,

Win Won Soon was his name

And immediately on his selection

We won the next game.

 

 

We beat a team badly-

Bottom of the table, Oman,

Hiring this Chinese expert

Seemed a good plan.

 

Of course, it was a fluke

As bajans would say

And immediately we returned

To our losing ways.

 

Cricket was a way of life

In the Caribbean

And for many, many years

Ours was a great team.

 

Nowadays all we can do

Is just reminisce

About the great players we had

That we sorely miss.

 

 

George Headley, Sir Garry,

Sir Vivian and Brian

Are just about four at this time

That I would mention.

 

Around these four

There’s much cricket folklore

But those who know

Know there are many more.

 

How the mighty has fallen

And to such great depths!

Rock-bottom has been surpassed

We are such a wreck!

 

Nothing seems to work

And blame is cast everywhere

Whereupon I sometimes wonder

Do they really care?

 

We need an answer

But none is forth coming,

Administrators, coaches and players,

Better we are demanding.

 

It might even be better

To pull out for a while

For right now this slapdash affair

Is not Caribbean style.

 

It hurts to the stomach

And up in the head too

And almost every game we play

Is a colossal boo-boo.

 

Winning is the exception

And at very rare times too

And everyone is lost and clueless

Not knowing what to do.

 

 

I bet the ice-cream man

Only yesterday

That the game with the Indians

Would end that same day…

 

And that we won’t exceed

Our first innings score,

That is exactly what happened

Need I say more?

 

We need an answer

And we need an answer fast!

However, don’t hold your breath

Or you’d surely pass.

 

Stewart Russell © July 15, 2023