What happens to a dream deferred?—Langston Hughes
They will leave the field, sad, distraught,
but not ashamed, not humiliated. They
shot more often at goal than the opponents
and hit bar and post along with kicks
that went straight to the sky. They are
my team and I am sad this evening
for players and fans, gracious people,
many- hued, salted, from highlands,
forest and coast, united in the quest,
the eager, desperate effort to convert
thirty-six years of playing in wilderness
into a goal or two that will help
them advance to the next round,
put off now for four more years, not
four decades, not generations grown up
without the blanquirrojo in the World Cup.
Indran Amirthanayagam, c) June 21, 2018