I’ll be loving you always”
“I’ll be loving you always”
4 old ladies, sleeping in the ward,
I wait for mum to wake; a bored
Doctor asks a nurse if Swindon
Are playing today.
She tells him, “Doncaster, away.”
Mum wakes up and I hold her hand,
Then Nora awakes and sobs as she struggles to stand,
Singing “I’ll be loving you, always,
With a heart that’s true, always
Not for just a day. Not for just a year.
Not for just a week. But always.”
Then breaks down, “Nobody comes to see me.
I wish I was dead. I’m so unhappy.
I was going to throw myself out the window, I was.
But you know me. I don’t like to make a fuss.”
“I’ll be loving you always.
With a heart that’s true, always.
Not for just a day. Not for just a week.
Not for just a month. But always.”
The nurse shows Nora her exercise book,
Where each day’s events can be looked
At and remembered and I hear her say
“See, look Nora your son came yesterday,
He comes to see you everyday.”
Nora smiles and so does Dorothy.
She’s just finished her cold milky tea
And is having her hair done,
In a style that she liked when she was young.
So now the only person all alone
Is the tiny woman who’s all skin and bone,
Sleeping quietly in her chair,
Oblivious to the way that we now share
Conversation, laughs and chat.
“You’re a lucky woman to have a son like that.
I wish mine would come and see me.
But he’s after my pension and my money.
If you ask me.
Which you won’t. Nobody does.
But I don’t like to make a fuss.
I’ll be loving you always.
With a heart that’s true always.
She’s a lovely woman, your mother.”
“And you’re a lovely woman too, Nora.”
They laugh together, young again,
Just like flappers way back when
All the boys would whistle and stare
When mum and Nora would stand and dare
The would be dancers to ask them out.
But now that confidence is replaced by doubt
And abrupt melancholic silence.
I give mum a poster-poem collage for her bedside,
Words and pictures for her memory to ride
Her off to sleep and dreams and a happy time
Until she wakes again when the dinner trolley arrives.
I kiss her. It’s time for me to go back home
For all the football scores and answer-phone.
A one all draw and a takeaway.
Another spring-time Saturday.
“I’ll be loving you always.”
About This Site
Welcome to Football Poets -- a club for all football poets, lovers of football and lovers of (alternative) poetry. Discover poets in every league from respected internationals at the top of their game to young hopefuls in the school playground.
Publish your football poems here and then discuss them with your team mates and fans. We're archived by The British Library, so your masterpieces are in the safe hands of a world-class keeper. What a result!
My Account
Latest Poems
kevin halls
10th November 2024
joe morris
10th November 2024
Clik The Mouse
10th November 2024
Clik The Mouse
6th November 2024
Alex Saynor
6th November 2024
joe morris
29th October 2024
joe morris
17th October 2024
Denys E. W. Jones
16th October 2024
joe morris
11th October 2024
Mike Bartram
11th October 2024
Crispin’s Corner
In Memoriam
Kick It Out & Christmas Truce
Latest Comments
13th September 2024 at 6:14 pm
Welcome to Football Poets Beth
Great evocative poem Beth….
More please !
Haiku always welcome.
Hope we (FGR) get to play you again soon
Best
Crispin
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26th July 2024 at 6:25 pm
Great poem Mike Bartram. Eddie was a legend, affectionately known in Liverpool as, “the first hooligan.” Even the hoolies were well dressed in those days. The amazing thing was he was only 26 when that picture was taken. He’d played for Everton youth team and was well known to the players. He never got arrested. They threw him out and he climbed back in, just in time for Derek Temples winner.
I used the picture of him being tackled to the ground on the front cover of my book, “Once Upon a rhyme in Football.” It’s worth looking on youtube and finding the re-enactment of the Wembley scene. Frank Skinner and Baddiel went around to Eddies home in the 1990’s and acted it out on the green outside. It’s hilarious, especially all the effort they put in to get Eddie sober enough to shoot the scene.
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10th July 2024 at 6:07 pm
Hi Crispin,
I don’t know if you’ve see the picture in social media today…
a picture of a teenage Lionel Messi cradling a baby in Africa as part of a photoshoot…. the family had won a lottery to have their baby pictured with him….
the photographer has just revealed that the baby is actually in fact Lamine Yamal!!!!
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26th May 2024 at 2:30 pm
Hi Denys…
Re Man City:
OK it was 20 years ago but Criag Wilson did write this and a few others on them back in 04/05.
BTW I’m more Forest Green Rover since 2014 (and Chelsea) these days . I drum and am a standing season ticket holder .
Best
Crispin
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29th April 2024 at 2:47 pm
Hi Denys,
Yes Richard Williams you’re a brilliant wordsmith, my friend. When I first saw your football poetry I thought it was the superb Guardian sports and music writer. I once had the honour of sitting next to Richard Williams while at the Independent on the sports desk. He writes about music and sport with immense knowledge and authority. I’ve read a couple of Richard’s books recently. Great writer rather like you Richard Williams the Pompey fan. Congratulations on promotion.
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28th April 2024 at 5:59 pm
Thanks Denys. Yes your replay poem was superb.
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26th April 2024 at 4:46 pm
Nice work, Joe. You were quick off the mark with that! Good one from Richard Williams too I see.
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25th April 2024 at 7:33 pm
Hi Denys,
Thanks mate. I’ll do it now.
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25th April 2024 at 1:56 pm
Thanks Joe,
you might like to write a poem yourself on the same subject…
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23rd April 2024 at 4:03 pm
Hi Denys
With you all the way on the abolition of FA Cup replays. What are they doing to the game?
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