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New Boots

Jon Tait

Thursday, March 19th, 2009

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 They must have been constructed
in some grey state-owned factory
like Ladas & Trabants
& they didn’t go down well
with the lads in the changing rooms
when edged gingerly out of the school bag.

2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 The region gripped by unemployment
& the miner’s strike

3 Leave a comment on verse 3 0 men in orange flashed donkey jackets
grinned at the sight
of my new black Bokta boots
that my fathaa got cheap
as they’d been in the shop window
for months.

4 Leave a comment on verse 4 0 paint splattered bib & brace
grey stubble & the glowing dog end
of a Regal ordinary
hot as his temper.

5 Leave a comment on verse 5 0 -They’ll be fine, man

6 Leave a comment on verse 6 0 But even I got a laugh
when Mickey’s mam got him a pair
of Bobby Charlton specials from the charity shop

7 Leave a comment on verse 7 0 all dull brown leather
like building site steel toe-cappers
that smashed the solid old white Mitre multiplex
& didn’t hurt his feet at all

8 Leave a comment on verse 8 0 then lay hidden in the back of the shed
behind the humming large white freezer
so not to hurt her feelings

9 Leave a comment on verse 9 0 while some kid in Puma ‘Maradona Kings’
couldn’t even make the team.

Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/new-boots/