LesleyScoble.com

Ange / Poetisatinta is our Poet‑of‑the‑Week for W3 Prompt #212, inviting us to capture a dramatic moment — in just a handful of lines.

The rules are simple:

• 5–8 lines
• all one‑syllable words
• one multi‑syllable word, placed last

It’s a prompt that aligns with my current leaning toward minimalism.
I hope you enjoy the poem. There’s always a moment of magic and drama in a good game of football.

Twice Round the Wall

we’re fouled
brace of free kicks by Rice

the mid draws breath

bends the ball twice round the wall—

we hold our breath

score!
then one more!
Arsenal!


—Lesley Scoble, May 2026

---

NOTE
This poem was inspired by Declan Rice’s extraordinary duo of free‑kicks against Real Madrid on 9th April 2025 — two set‑pieces, twelve minutes apart, in Arsenal’s 3–0 Champions League quarter‑final win at the Emirates.

You can probably tell I’m an Arsenal fan. Here’s a photo of me leaving the stadium after the Arsenal v Bayern Munich match 26th November 2025, where we won 3–1.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Enormous thanks to Ange for her dramatic moment prompt.
My gratitude as always to David, The Skeptics Kaddish.
And my thanks to you, dear reader, for being here.

Check out the W3 Prompt and follow the link below.

W3 Prompt #212: Wea’ve Written Weekly