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A religious conversion

Greg Freeman

Saturday, February 12th, 2022

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 I won’t mention the team. The reason?
I’d like most readers to stick
with this beyond the first lines.
It isn’t which club, or even football,
but about a father and daughter
forming an unexpected, unbreakable
bond, in difficult, teenage times.

2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 My son was all set for the match
but gave up the ticket after his game
in the morning. (A 3-5 thriller, since you ask).
So she came instead, out of curiosity,
and because she had some opposition
players’ pictures, from a teen magazine,
pinned on the wall above her bed.

3 Leave a comment on verse 3 0 The Reds, let’s call them, were 2-0 up
after half an hour, could have scored more.
But after the break, the game turned around.
A substitution. The Blues hit four,
and went on to win the cup that year
for the first time since I was a teenager,
to give you some idea of what it meant.

4 Leave a comment on verse 4 0 A sacred game that lived on in the memory
and converted my girl, hearing the roars,
seeing the rapture of the crowd and her father,
consumed by an unquestioning glow.
In the car on the way home she stared at my grin.
Dad, you’re so happy. She too was filled
with the spirit; all she’d ever need to know.

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Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/a-religious-conversion/