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2. Chris Lawler

Lol Ross

Sunday, January 16th, 2011

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 Chris Lawler… “Who?”
Ah, you haven’t a clue
But you ask me, and I cannot lie:
“When you were a youth
Who was it? The truth!
Whose shirt were you desp’rate to buy?”

2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 Chris was in black and white…
“Red all over?” That’s right
Number two in the Bill Shankly years
Fat of face, floppy lip
When the Reds won the Cup
The handles matched young Chris’s ears.

3 Leave a comment on verse 3 0 So a right back. No stunner.
“Tough tackler? Quick runner?”
Not really. “Okay then, why Lawler?”
Chris was calm, Mr steady
Always there, ever ready
Simply quiet, no shouter. No brawler.

4 Leave a comment on verse 4 0 He’d slip in by the post
Yes! A goal! Stop to boast?
No, my hero jogged back, still the same
For seven (not four)
Gruelling seasons, he wore
Crimson kit, never missing a game.

5 Leave a comment on verse 5 0 “But no team shirts back then
I suppose.” Wrong again.
Sixties Christmas: “A present for you.”
From our big ‘Santa’s sack’
Bright red shirt. On the back
For Chris Lawler, hand sewn, number two.

© Lol Ross 2011

Notes

Chris Lawler played for Liverpool from the mid-60s to the mid-70s, scoring dozens without ever taking a penalty. He missed only three games in seven successive seasons.

Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/2-chris-lawler/