Football Poets

Hillsborough

¶ 1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 For one day the Steel City became Merseyside
No blots on the horizon point to trouble
The Red machine is in full swing
All conquering on the road to the double

¶ 2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 Through the peak district to Sheffield
Fans savour “God’s own County”
Famed Woodhead and Snake passes
Amongst the finest of all in Blighty

¶ 3 Leave a comment on verse 3 0 On the banks of the River Don
To Hillsborough they rejoice and head
Built nine decades prior to that year
And soon to be a shrine to the dead

¶ 4 Leave a comment on verse 4 0 Red Battalion of 13 in port
Grobelaar, Ablett, Nicol, Staunton
Beardsley, Aldridge, Burrows, Whelan
Barnes, Houghton, McMahon, Rush, Hansen

¶ 5 Leave a comment on verse 5 0 At 2.55 there are shrieks of delight
Witness all too customary a scene
Led out by Ray Lewis – the Hillsborough ref
King Kenny’s champs take to the green

¶ 6 Leave a comment on verse 6 0 3:00pm and further gladness
Semi final kicks off with a flourish
Heaving Leppings Lane and the Spion Kop
Human pen where many will perish

¶ 7 Leave a comment on verse 7 0 No stewards where it mattered
As ticketed Reds wielded their gold
With the carnival very much in full flow
Death’s shrill voice, calls out cold

¶ 8 Leave a comment on verse 8 0 A moral free Police Chief on call
“Deceitful” Duckenfield the security host
Ham-fisted Superintendent Murray
Responsible for the control post

¶ 9 Leave a comment on verse 9 0 “Dishonest” Duckenfield the rookie
Held sway over blameless fates
Yet still gave that fateful order:
Instructing; “Open the gates”

¶ 10 Leave a comment on verse 10 0 Despite a lucid view of the Leppings pen
There’s gross duty evasion
That “deceitful, dishonest” match commander
Mistook all for a pitch invasion

¶ 11 Leave a comment on verse 11 0 In streamed a flurry of Reds
Adding to the burgeoning number
Intensity, panic, and horror set in
The Police obstinate in their slumber

¶ 12 Leave a comment on verse 12 0 Asphyxiation took hold and ribs shattered
“Please Bruce (Grobelaar), help us!” they exclaim
As Beardsley struck the bar
Ray Lewis whistled the end of the game

¶ 13 Leave a comment on verse 13 0 That whistle set in motion a nightmare
All beheld an abominable crush
The carnival fizzled out with a whimper
Death mingled with the huge onrush

¶ 14 Leave a comment on verse 14 0 Paramedic Tony Evans blocked entry
“They’re fighting”, the Police scowled
Ad hoardings became makeshift stretchers
“Shan’t abandon the dead”someone growled

¶ 15 Leave a comment on verse 15 0 Death’s stench, permeated in abundance
Owl’s gym resembling an ER ward
Powerful and all encompassing
Lone, grief stricken voices roared

¶ 16 Leave a comment on verse 16 0 Trevor Hicks and his teenage daughters
In memory evergreen
Sarah and Victoria captured forever in time
Forever 19 and 15

¶ 17 Leave a comment on verse 17 0 For Jon Paul, Stevie G’s cousin
3:06 the dead whistle blown
Kevin Williams amongst the deceased
And the rest will always be known

¶ 18 Leave a comment on verse 18 0 94 confirmed dead on the day
Football watched with bated breath
95 the figure four days later
Wee Lee Nicol succumbed to death

¶ 19 Leave a comment on verse 19 0 Life switched off four years later
Number 96, Anthony Bland
“Matter of life and death” a world away
It’s still “Justice”, the families demand

¶ 20 Leave a comment on verse 20 0 26 years and still no justice
Resolve is now rock iron mould
Malicious falsehoods add fuel to the fire
But justice is best served cold

¶ 21 Leave a comment on verse 21 0 Never forget the screams
The denials, the lies, the sorrow
You’ll never walk alone
Not yesterday, today or tomorrow.

¶ 22 Leave a comment on verse 22 0 For the victims and their families #JFT96

¶ 23 Leave a comment on verse 23 0 Number7
© Emdad Rahman