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13th May 2006

Philip Rush

Wednesday, May 17th, 2006

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 One of the things I like most
about the cup final
after Gabbidon’s tackle, Ashton’s pass,

2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 after the singing, the terrible singing,
after the grown-up banter with the scouse boys
in their nasty cheap cars, all that,

3 Leave a comment on verse 3 0 one of the things I like most
about the cup final
is the mess it leaves behind,

4 Leave a comment on verse 4 0 whole parishes of Cardiff knee deep
in free newspapers, obsolete flags, chip bags,
carrier bags, shattered plastic mugs smooth as puddles,

5 Leave a comment on verse 5 0 beer cans, hamburger bags, broken flags,
plastic mugs shattered into splinters,
the crackle and slither under your boots

6 Leave a comment on verse 6 0 and Forever Blowing Bubbles
rises melancholy now,
in a minor key almost,

7 Leave a comment on verse 7 0 and slower, slow as a heartbeat,
trench warfare,
barbed wire waltz,

8 Leave a comment on verse 8 0 and the cleaners will be out with those things,
those long pincer things like Welsh robots,
like prosthetics,

9 Leave a comment on verse 9 0 collecting and separating all this,
all these casual remarks,
all the loose talk and the language

10 Leave a comment on verse 10 0 showered over Cardiff for eight brittle hours,
big black bin-bags full of words,
full of chanting and chat-up lines

11 Leave a comment on verse 11 0 and
(every year it’s the same)
unfinished sentences,

12 Leave a comment on verse 12 0 incomplete thoughts.

© Philip Rush 2006

Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/13th-may-2006/