I went on my own to visit the care home, To see my mum, aged 91; Someone singing “Downtown” when I got there, A depiction of Swindon’s cupboard-bare Season, where no rhyme or reason Can seemingly save them from the drop. I stand the whole time of my stop, (About the length of half a […]

Sing Robin Redbreast, Chanticleer of flood-light nights. Sing when you’re winging.

Roses round the door, The roast beef of Olde England, Heads in the sand-bags. Pride and Prejudice? Sense and Sensibility? Obvious innit? World War metaphor, Back in the trenches again, Back to the future.

It came upon a midnight clear, That glorious song of old, When angels bent down to the earth, And changed machine guns into harps, And turned leaden bullets into golden carols That drifted across no man’s land, And choirs of soldiers joined the angels In a cease-fire of exultation, While all the bloodied uniformed citizens […]

It’s against the law To shout and bawl Racialist obscenities; Fanatics are taken from the ground, For no-one can be allowed To abuse players for their ethnicity Or for the colour of their skin. It’s a generation ago When bananas littered the snows Of the winter of our game, When Asian and Black Were routinely […]