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A Robin for the Equinox

Alex Saynor

Tuesday, June 21st, 2022

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 The day I found out I was leaving,
no-one told me. It was on Ceefax, page 302:
I’m off to Bristol City!

2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 Maybe it’s time to ride the Severn Bore
to Gloucester from Sharpness
in tomorrow’s dusk and darkness.

3 Leave a comment on verse 3 0 I can wander down Marine Parade,
a fox in the box at Ashton Gate
but a Robin for the equinox,
the surfing striker of Avonmouth

4 Leave a comment on verse 4 0 waiting for a rise in the water
to run the channels, channels of the deep
fresh in off the sea to the Severn Estuary.

5 Leave a comment on verse 5 0 I’ll lose a boot alone on Longney Sands
from a low pressure, nothing challenge
by a glistening pool on the mudflats.

6 Leave a comment on verse 6 0 The day I found out I was leaving,
I stared at the sky-blue on black:
‘Maxwell: Son Regrets Empire Collapse’.
I found out I was leaving on Ceefax.

Notes

Apparently striker Tony Thorpe found out he was leaving Fulham for Bristol City in 1998 when he checked Ceefax. I imagine him reconciling himself to the move by riding the Severn Bore, the wave which appears at the spring and autumn equinoxes.

Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/a-robin-for-the-equinox/