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David’s Dream

Graham Salter

Wednesday, February 26th, 2014

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 Amid the shouting and the noise
Spare a thought for David Moyes.
Last night he had an awful dream
About a day when his precious team
Has lost away in Athens, and he
Must face a journalist or three
And, worse than that, (there’s no release)
He has to talk to David Peace.
Yes, he’s the fellow who delighted
To talk about “the damned United”
He loves to use the colour red
First it’s “Red Riding”, then “Red or Dead”
Through repetition he builds up a pace
And he uses “red” till he’s blue in the face
So David Moyes he simply froze
When he read this tale in the Yorkshireman’s prose:
RED WRITING ON THE WALL
On Tuesday 25th January 2014, Manchester United Football Club went to Athens. That day, thirty two thousand , three hundred and fifty eight folk came too. In the thirty-fourth minute, Dominguez scored. Twenty four minutes later, Campbell made it two. Manchester United lost. In Athens, in Greece. After the whistle, the final whistle, David Moyes faced the press.
So Mister Moyes if you could find the time, if you could see your way,
To spell out in your own words, to explain in your own style
What exactly’s going on here
Are they … this team
This Evans Smalling Carrick Cleverley Jones Welbeck Evra these boys
Are they good enough, are they strong enough
For Manchester United Football Club?
We are going to win every game for the rest of the season. You’ll see. Every single game.
Of course. I see.
Upstairs in the house, upstairs in the night
David Moyes sees the clouds in the sky, the dark clouds moving in the dark sky.
And David reaches for his notebook
His book of names, his book of notes
Yes, sit down please Mr Moyes
In the morning and in the light
Down the corridor and under the stand
David Moyes sits down at the long table.
What exactly’s happening here Mr Moyes?
And David looks at his book
His pages of names, his pages of notes.
And says We are going to win every game for the rest of the season. You’ll see gentlemen. Every single game.
I see. Of course.
Goodbye Mr Moyes. Close the door behind you.

Notes

have great sympathy for the pressure David Moyes is under at the moment, and I feel that his predicament might best be conveyed by a great football writer such as David Peace, who wrote “The damned United”. Can I stress that I am taking no pleasure in United’s problems. Also, that this is a pastiche of Peace’s work, not in any sense a parody.

Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/davids-dream/