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Christmas Eve (Revisited)

Stuart Butler

Monday, December 16th, 2019

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 You called on Christmas Eve afternoon,
Carrying an unwrapped parcel,
A gift brought from memory lane:
David Dangerfield’s dad’s football boots,
Slightly battered but proud and dubbined,
Though still smeared with 60 year old mud.

2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 Brown, big toe caps, heavy size 8s,
Placed on the Christmas hearth to warm,
Like two twin ships in dry dock,
Recollecting their voyages
Once ploughed through the fields
Of Gloucestershire and Wiltshire.

3 Leave a comment on verse 3 0 There will be no scrapyard for you,
You will tell your old time tales
In studded mute testimony,
Memories dribbling their path
Through the logs, sparks and flames,
Climbing up the chimney
To greet the stars,
And be over the moon.

Notes

Written Dec 2012. Published here on this site Dec 2014.

The boots stand on the hearth. I intend to put this piece on to card and tuck it in the boots s well as send it to Steve Ireland who brought the boots around out of the blue. David Dangerfield played for Swindon in the early 70s.

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Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/christmas-eve-revisited/