Football Poets

One Christmas During Covid

¶ 1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 one Christmas during Covid
we stand but far apart
our loved ones and our football
confined to in our hearts
the snow has still to paint the land
but hope surrounds us now
with wipes in hand behind our masks
we carry on somehow

¶ 2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 as we reflect upon our year
the strangeness and the cost
and think upon in sadness
all those that we have lost
and though we miss the human touch
the banter and the cheer
we’re grateful just to be alive
and simply to be here
reminded of a long gone time
our grandparents went through
the endless loss the dreadful cost
the lethal Spanish Flu

¶ 3 Leave a comment on verse 3 0 *one Christmas in the trenches
when deep in mud and sand
their loved ones and their football
a distant far off land –
they stood as snow lay all around
as icy chills would spread
behind the sand bags and the wire
they stood among the dead
on backs of Woodbine packets
around some cold tinned stew
like texts and up-dates of their day
the scores would still get through
December Nineteen Fourteen
upon that Christmas morn
when to a man an act un-planned
and instant truce was born
behind the barbed wire barricades
all scorched and bleak and bare
a distant sound grew all around
a song hung on the air
that Christmas in the trenches
a hope blew on the wind
a carol in another tongue
from far off did begin
we’ll never know who made the call
to move in such a way
but something somehow lifted them
upon that Christmas Day
from burrows then on either side
they met in no-man’s land
as enemy met enemy
with gifts and outstretched hands
a football thrown between the guns
from nowhere did appear
and in that silence voices rang
and echoed loud and clear
we’ll never ever know the scores
or just how many games
when Tommy Atkins challenged Fritz
upon that Christmas Day –
one Christmas in that first Great War
of stench and blood and grime
their football brought them closer
for one brief day in time
and though commanders drove them back
their orders to obey
between the lines a match was played
upon that Christmas Day*

¶ 4 Leave a comment on verse 4 0 and here we are in Covid
the strangest time we’ve known
for some of us it’s easy
for some it’s spent alone
and while we long to see our kids
and feel so torn apart
we wait so patiently and keep
their faces in our hearts
we do our best to just ignore
conspiracies that rage
and keep the faith as always
throughout this poignant age
we stand at social distances
but hope is growing now
behind our masks we meet the task
to carry on somehow

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