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Today my housemate spent large parts of his day in other roles: netball selector & volunteer firefighter.

The serious poem began playing with synonyms … & then stayed that way cos I was too exhausted to work it further … but I think it’s kind of fun for a first draft. Reflects how I feel consuming lots of climate change literature. The factoid came when it was suggested (perhaps facetiously) that I should write a netball poem. Regardless, challenge accepted.

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9:burnonyms 

1.
our house is burning : on fire : alight : ablaze, blazing ; it’s going up : up in smoke : in flames : aflame : it smoulders : flares : flashes : flickers

2.
we’ve burned all the letters : set fire to : set on fire : set alight : set light to : lit : set burning : ignited : put a match to ; kindled : incinerate : reduce to ashes : destroy by fire ; torch : inflame

3.
we forgot to turn off the iron & nearly burned the sky : scorch : singe : sear : char : blacken : discolour : brand ; scald ; cauterise : calcine ; torrefy

4.
our lungs burn with humiliation : be hot : be warm : feel hot : be feverish : be fevered : be on fire; blush : redden : be red :: go red : go pink : turn red : turn crimson : turn scarlet : flush : colour : crimson

5.
our lip burns where our teeth have pierced it : smart : sting : tingle : prick : prickle : be irritated : be sore : hurt : be painful : throb : ache

6.
earth is burning with curiosity : at what is still to come : be consumed by/with : be eaten up by/with : be obsessed by/with : be tormented by/with : be bedevilled by

7.
some (but not enough) are burning with fury that so little is being done : we seethe : boil : fume : smoulder : simmer : be boiling over : be beside oneself ; be livid : be wild : jump up & down : froth/foam at the mouth

8.
people differ considerably in the energy they burn up : use up : consume : expend : get through : go through : dissipate : eat up : exhaust

9.
i burn to know what the secret is : yearn : long : have a longing : ache : be aching : itch : be itching : desire : be consumed with the desire : want : want badly : be unable to wait : be eager : be desperate : hanker : have a hankering : wish : crave : lust : pant : hunger : be hungry : be greedy : thirst : be thirsty ; have a yen : yen : be dying; archaic be athirst : be desirous

*****

Day 7 – TIL about an odd netball name

ball games, sprawling names

netball once was known as basketball
— wait let me start again

in 1891 basnetketball
began life with : just 13 rules 
as a 9 versus 9 game ;
using an old soccer ball ;
two wall-mounted
peach baskets as goals
& incorporated rules from  
 duck on a rock (a medieval
kid’s game played as a child)

for about 3 seconds it was called
Naismith Game after its inventor
— but he hated that & said 
“we have a ball & a basket: 
why not basketball?”

a female physical culture instructor
tweaked several rules them to 
make them more decorous for ladies
misunderstood others & called the resultant
hodgepodge basquette

in 1893 : Madame Österberg  
who advocated : female physical fitness
thereby better preparing : for motherhood 
not to mention :  emancipation  : generally
tossed a version : of the new sport
across the sea : to her English college students 

tweaks a couple years later 
by American lecturer : Dr Toles
played with waste paper baskets : on walls
without lines : boundaries : or circles

more revisions : 1897 from another 
American teacher : Miss Porter
moved outdoors : onto grass courts
divided : into three zones : replaced 
baskets : with ringed : nets

hence : net ball which went : imperial 
thrown : to all quarters of the Empire
caught in Oz possibly as early as 1897
though most say : turn of the century

despite being :  netball  :  everywhere else
the Aussies & Kiwis kept : the name 
women’s basketball : until 1970

at which point I can finally return 
to my initial remarks — 

netball once was known as basketball
in fact, it was still that when we Ango Panthers 
won our previous A-Grade premiership 
but. no. more. — we are now : reigning : BLG : netball premiers