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Nanny State

Alex Saynor

Saturday, April 27th, 2019

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 When your plans are stationary
like a boat tied up at the dock
inexorably, you just can’t get going
without buttering up the ref’

2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 by learning about his name, his family,
his route convoluted by temporary traffic-
lights shifting around the b-roads

3 Leave a comment on verse 3 0 by the viaduct. ‘Blending the Truth’
was such a strange choice of car sticker
but let it ride. He’s in charge of the time,

4 Leave a comment on verse 4 0 marginal offsides, atmospheres at sea level
he wants to see in the ball’s approximation
of ‘official size and weight.’ Two cans

5 Leave a comment on verse 5 0 of Nanny State at the end of the game
you’ll present to him to combine
for an ABV of one percent.

6 Leave a comment on verse 6 0 ‘You all support Mansfield’
chanted at Chesterfield fans at Saltergate
was all we could muster that day
on the fullest of full away terraces,
losing one-nil.

7 Leave a comment on verse 7 0 ‘It’s just like watching Mansfield’
they shot back after some friendly laughs
and we couldn’t disagree.

8 Leave a comment on verse 8 0 No buttering up
of the ref’ in utility rooms
with a raspberry tart or Nanny State would work.

9 Leave a comment on verse 9 0 He didn’t mind if you knew or didn’t know
his name at Saltergate, if you cared about his
‘Truth Blender’ car advert or not,

10 Leave a comment on verse 10 0 if all your plans were tied up at the dock
or like fruit tarts in asbestos.

11 Leave a comment on verse 11 0 ‘You all support Mansfield’ wouldn’t sway him
to respond to humour and every mistake

12 Leave a comment on verse 12 0 was ultimately minor or well meant

13 Leave a comment on verse 13 0 so we’d have to forget psychological games
and submit to the laws of the game,

14 Leave a comment on verse 14 0 the first and second phase
of marginal offsides and other restrictions
to a field of play we wouldn’t change.

Notes

Re. ultimately respecting – with creative tension – the referee and the laws of the game.

Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/nanny-state-at-saltergate/