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Swapping Shirts With Shakespeare – Sonnet 666

Stuart Butler

Wednesday, August 22nd, 2001

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 How like an inconstant lover thou hast been,
For if I take thee in mine arms and hold thee fast,
Thou dost choose to bounce into the centre forward’s path
And he doth then court thee and crash thee into mine open net;
Or, it tired of the custodian’s sickly spangled shirt,
I venture upfield like some mad Barthez,
If I essay a trap with mine shoe sole
Thou dost tarry for just an instant mere
Before thou dost wander and then disappear
From my piedmont caress and favour;
Or, if dispensing with mine baser body parts,
I try to woo thee with mine head and brow,
Thou dost bounce like flotsam from a wind tossed wreck,
And dost roll with the flood tide away from mine prow;
Or, if I try to control thy wayward vagaries
By utilising mine heart and chest on thee,
Thou dost scurry low and kick me full square
Into the very heart of mine own manhood.
Oh false ball! I give my very soul to thee,
But thou dost desert me when the clock strikes three.

Notes

The manuscript was found only today, in Southampton, in a long forgotten dell.

Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/swapping-shirts-with-shakespeare-sonnet-666/