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In Praise Of The Underdog.

kevin raymond

Thursday, March 31st, 2011

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 Yer derriere
Hanging out of yer trousers
Kit bag screaming Tesco out loud
Yer hardship and fear
Both inspiring the doubters
To sneer with contempt at yer crowd.

2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 Plastic bags
Hung on a nail in some shed
Scuffed Provident shoes on the floor*
You and the lads
Geed up, confident, ready
To get out there, and fight for the poor.

3 Leave a comment on verse 3 0 Boots that yer ma
Sweated buckets for
Twenty-nine shillings plus shorts
A black polo necked sweater
The local cubs wore
Made you a Lev Yashin of sorts.

4 Leave a comment on verse 4 0 Sly digs in the ribcage
When no one was looking
During fraught frantic stages of action
That day when a wily over aged
Ringer, lost teeth and a filling**
As yer full back exerted extraction.

5 Leave a comment on verse 5 0 Frantically
Clearing that scorcher
Yer conscience had told yer crashed in
A put upon referee
Surrounded by kids, and teachers stood calling:
“Referee. Are there rules against our school team scoring?”.

6 Leave a comment on verse 6 0 The last grasp victories
Landing the spoils
Walking that way winners walk
Or dispatching to history
Those last minute errors
Left you gutted, you struggled to talk.

7 Leave a comment on verse 7 0 The winning and losing
Up highs and low downs
Three cheers for the other school side
Counting the bruises
Light blue turning brown
Resisting the hurting to cry.

8 Leave a comment on verse 8 0 Sat back in the shed
Yer knees bloody
Torn to shreds on a pink cinders pitch
While upstairs in yer head
You were loving
Every minute, of bliss, like remembering this!

© Kev 2011

Notes

This is a poem dedicated to those team of kids who turn up to give it a go, and find themselves looked down upon by seemingly better off, opponents thinking a pristine football kit makes them superior to the kids with their gear in carrier bags, whose kit is all different sizes, and of varying styles. Well I’m pleased to say it don’t, out there on the field of play we’re all even, irrespective of what we wear and turning over such a nose up in the air outfit was a day of my young life, my mates and me will never forget.

*In Pimlico, London. Where I went to primary school a lot of kids had their school uniform, shoes and football boots paid for by a Provident cheque, which was paid off weekly by their cash strapped parents. Often referred to as: on the drip, on the slate, on tick, or on the never never.

**A ringer is an older kid, or a much better footballer from a higher year, or even another youth club dropped in to a younger kids match to be sure of a team winning a crucial game. How he was stopped was also part of said game, unfortunately for him.

Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/in-praise-of-the-underdog/