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Best

Andy Lockett

Thursday, October 6th, 2005

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 Matador, Beatle, Irish rogue
Dancing through defences.
Wiry tough, a scarlet shirt
Lighting dark afternoons on
Northern grounds – Razor sharp
Instincts to thrill the crowd.

2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 Six goals in a Cup tie;
Lobbing Jennings and Bonetti
At the Stretford End –
Rounding the ‘keeper at Wembley,
TV memories of a magical age
When Georgie was the boy.

3 Leave a comment on verse 3 0 Slick models – cars and girls –
Fame too soon, a genius on
A pedestal to knock down,
And down, and down again…
The crown slipped, tarnished –
Team and man in decline.

4 Leave a comment on verse 4 0 So he left United’s home,
And the Glory, Glory game,
Beyond Busby’s control –
To ply his trade elsewhere:
Fulham, Hibs, Los Angeles,
Hitting bars around the world.

5 Leave a comment on verse 5 0 Now, a forlorn shadow –
Weak, ill, desperate;
Grown old before his time.
Goodwill lost, relationships wasted
Away like his life – a Belfast child
Who was born to be the Best.

© Andy Lockett 2005

Notes

God willing, please make it to thru to your 60th next May, George

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