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Anyone

Mark Ballard

Thursday, September 9th, 2004

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 I’ve screamed with joy when my tickets arrived.
I’ve gone to games on work days – I’ve happily skived.
I’ve run to the ground fearing I would be late.
I’ve chosen the footie ahead of a date.

2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 I’ve been to a match and stood the whole game.
I’ve watched my great team in the wind and the rain.
I’ve gone with my family, I’ve gone with my friends,
I’ve never once left till the game’s at an end.

3 Leave a comment on verse 3 0 Can you say you haven’t? I’m guessing not.
You’ve cheered every goal, every cross, every shot.
And even if you haven’t you know someone who did,
And for just ninety minutes, we all spend a few quid.

4 Leave a comment on verse 4 0 What do we get in return for that dosh?
Nice facilities, these new grounds are well ******’ posh.
A chance to cheer and sing for our team,
And a trophy? – well, we all have our dreams.

5 Leave a comment on verse 5 0 What we don’t expect when we hand over our pounds?
To have to be buried, dead in the ground.
To not come back from a football match.
For our families to have to start their lives from scratch.

6 Leave a comment on verse 6 0 We don’t expect to have to ressucitate friends,
We don’t expect lives to come to an end.
We don’t expect this and rightly so,
This is no way for a life to go.

7 Leave a comment on verse 7 0 The victims of Hillsborough have waited fifteen years,
For some form of justice, to dry some of the tears.
Liverpool had to recover, on them did it fall,
But the issues of that day should be felt by us all.

8 Leave a comment on verse 8 0 It could have been you, or someone you love,
Life taken away, soul sent up above,
It could have been your father, your daughter, your son,
More than that – it could have been almost anyone.

Notes

I wrote this poem after being lent a video of the Drama Documentary by Jimmy McGovern. The beginning of the drama documentary is centered around how various people found out they had got their tickets for the semi-final. It was strange and disturbing to watch that and think that so many of the things these people do are the same as what I do when I go to a game. We are all one under football. Nowadays we take safety at a football match for granted. 96 people died simply for going to a game. No matter how filth the gutter press want to print, the real truth of Hillsborough lives on through those who have bothered to find out.

Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/anyone/