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Margate Was

Dulwich Poet

Saturday, December 14th, 2013

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 A dreary town
Stuck on the Kent coast
Always an awful place
I dreaded visiting most.
Not because I hated seaside
That was always fun
The shame was
I could only afford
The penny arcades
Which I never won.
No riding on the big dipper
When I was a not-so-little nipper
Used to pretend I was scared of the ride
As my mates all took the piss
Wasn’t gonna be having this.
Couldn’t admit I was skint and poor
Even though they knew the score
Any shekels I had to spare
Were not to waste in here
Not to throw away at the fun fair
Closely guarded for my precious beer.
Now I’m middle aged
My friends have scattered
Not that they really mattered.
Back to Margate I return
Still haven’t got money to burn
Dreamland’s changed all fenced up
I’m here for a game in the FA Cup.
This time I didn’t see the town
On the coach right to the ground
Not here being a day tripper bound
No seeing the sights of the new Turner
Or the pier that’s no longer there
Amusement arcades fade-flashing bright
Hardly a sunseeker in sight
One or two apprentice gamblers enticed inside
And by coincidence it’s also Margayte Pride
Not that I’d have got a ride.
The irony of our fans in Pink shirts
Not realising they’re magnets to gay flirts!
Rainbow flags instead of sticks of rock
Would a ‘Kiss Me Quick Hat’
Have got me in dock?
But like old Margate town
I’m all clapped out
At least they were loved once
And had their moments
I’m never been there…
Just a washed-up lout!
The only love I have
Is for my football team
Platonic relationship only
Anything else is a dream.
But isn’t that what
The F.A.Cup’s for
I live for that moment
For Ethan to score!
When he hit the back of the net
Nothing else mattered
Wiping out flashbacks of my life
Being emotionally battered.
For a few moments
We’re all as one
An ecstatic high
When the game is won.
My life isn’t much
I’ll settle for moments like this
When I can bury the pain
For occasional bliss.

Notes

( This is about the Kent town of Margate, where I visited quite a few times as a daytripper , as a teenager, from London. I went back earlier this season when Dulwich Hamlet played there in the FA Cup 2nd qualifying round, we won 2-1, Ethan Pinnock scoring our winner. But I never ventured into town, as I travelled on the Supporters Coach. I wrote this a couple of months after the game.)

Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/margate-was/