Football Poets

A night for record breaking

¶ 1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 So he stood on the shoulders of the heads
Of giants, a colossus supreme
A footballing Titan
Record breaker
The all time England goal scorer
Now 54 goals not out
Harry Kane
The ultimate citizen
If only Orson Welles
Could only have seen his
Triumphant contemporary
Perhaps in our fevered imagination
An American cousin
From a fabled Hollywood studio
Long ago
If only it were true
For not only did Kane overtake
Jimmy Greaves
In volume, quantity and number
But we also witnessed an England
Victory in the land of trattorias
Contented gondolas, seductive
Mouth watering pizzas and
Historic piazzas where suspicious
Mafia connections were once born
It was Italy in Naples
Last night
Where goals bloomed
In the first full flush
Of springtime daffodils
Heralded the first seeds
Portents of petunias
On hanging baskets of floral glory
England beat Italy
For the first time since
The precursor to Beatlemania
Jude Bellingham now established
As a world class talent
Drifting past defenders like
A train commuter on an escalator
Moving past the hustle and bustle
Of industry, endeavour and the
Morning rush hour
With a large slice of piquant
Panache, a sweet confection
In patriotic shades
Of Three Lions on the chest
Then Kalvin Phillips
With warm homages to Manchester City
But now his country came calling
And that was all he needed
Phillips spreading tranquillity
Across the nervous waters
Of Gareth Southgate’s emboldened troops
Gliding, gadding about, re-assuring,
Soothing pre match butterflies
Since English hearts
Were last embraced in
Italy in 1961
When life was less
Connected with the
Rest of the world
And only newspaper print
Delivered the template
Of football imagery
Black and white TV
With its seminal symbolism
Last night though
Jack Grealish, yet another
City gent in Manchester surrounds
Grealish, surely the finished article
Stardust status
A player of the most advanced education
What a pleasure to be a witness
Again to his footballing intellect
Wisdom beyond his years
Body swerving, twisting the torso
Ghosting past players with scholarly
Intelligence, weaving webs of subterfuge
Clever, too clever, outlandishly
Outrageously stylish, drawing tackles
And fouls like three buses and yet more
Declan, of the claret and blue parish
Of West Ham, drives home
England’s opening goal from Harry’s
Carry across the six yard box
A thrilling announcement of West Ham
But for how much longer you fear
Then Harry’s moment in the country
Where the Azzurri met Serie A
A lound cannonade of another penalty
This time correctly, vehemently
Uncompromisingly scored,
Qatar at the end of last year
Stamped upon, rubbed from memory
It was never likely to be
A French revolution
England now in the mood
For yet more conquests in this
Time, Euro 2024 in Germany
How a Euro Final in their backyard
Would give rise to swollen hearts
Of pride,
And yet let us enjoy
Revenge in Italy
Authors of the latest chapter
A perfect title
For psychological page turner
Roberto Mancini, this is an
Important breakthrough
After English hearts
Were broken
At Wembley two years
Ago
Saka back to his most
Formidable, danger in
Twinkling feet, dashing,
Cutting in and out of blue
Shirts with deceptive feet
Clandestine toes
Gareth Southgate, let
The Road to Germany begin

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