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Cinder Pitch

Alex Saynor

Thursday, July 30th, 2020

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 Once we played on a cinder pitch,
a lava flow field with bubble cavities
on a flattened out Mount St. Helens
of ashes and agglomerates.

2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 Which flow event formed the fine ash
from fire fountain magma clots
for Manchester YMCA and Motspur Park?

3 Leave a comment on verse 3 0 How did the ball fall on skin corroding
all-weather ancient dust?

4 Leave a comment on verse 4 0 Tell me the calculations you make these days
for a rondo on the Mondo, circles of tiki taka
for former disciples of Norman Hunter,
now billowing Cabbage Whites

5 Leave a comment on verse 5 0 with no fear of emergency skin grafts
or a visit to the clinic in Stratfield Turgis
to assess far gone or dubious tissue,
irrigate wounds and prevent a biofilm.

6 Leave a comment on verse 6 0 Now we live with skin integrity
even when clouds form a carbon duvet
over Bisham Abbey and dodgy tackles

7 Leave a comment on verse 7 0 in dank air send you down in instalments
to a geotextile membrane on aggregate pipe bedding
under rubber crumbed long-pile synthetic grass

8 Leave a comment on verse 8 0 more forgiving than black ash and blazing cinder,
scoria data from grain flow and slope failure
up through a vent from the Earth’s centre.

Notes

A consideration of how playing surfaces have changed over time, helped by the reflections of Wokingham & Emmbrook walking football team (Thames Valley PL Champions), who now play at Bisham Abbey and do a pre match ‘rondo’, Barcelona style, before each training session and generally play on advanced 4G surfaces rather than old school cinder!

Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/cinder-pitch/