Football Poets

Passing on the addiction

¶ 1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 It all starts on a red hot day in August and
ends on a warm one in early May.
Perfect symmetry, you might say

¶ 2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 But the inbetween will be cold and wet and
the wind is awfully grim in the north west
on an early December afternoon.

¶ 3 Leave a comment on verse 3 0 Be it Burnley or Blackpool; Blackburn or Bolton.
Down the leagues the weather seems even less merry
at Morecambe and Bury

¶ 4 Leave a comment on verse 4 0 and Accrington Stanley. “Who are they?”
asks the little boy with milk round his mouth.
He wears his red shirt with passion and it

¶ 5 Leave a comment on verse 5 0 has a name and number on the back.
It’s his hero, like.
Dreams of the winning strike

¶ 6 Leave a comment on verse 6 0 clutter his mind all week.
Oh, that glorious moment
in glorious, vivid technicolour

¶ 7 Leave a comment on verse 7 0 when the white leather ball
hits the back of the net, and you forget
that you’re absolutely soaking wet.

¶ 8 Leave a comment on verse 8 0 Cos this is what we’ve been waiting for.
This is what it’s all about.
There’s no escape

¶ 9 Leave a comment on verse 9 0 for the poor flapping goalie who’s covered in mud.
The goal’s come at a great cost;
one nil down and clean sheet bonus lost.

¶ 10 Leave a comment on verse 10 0 The kitman can’t bear to look for
they’re caked up in sludge.
Like layers of chocolate

¶ 11 Leave a comment on verse 11 0 all thick and rich;
a hedonist’s dream.
But there’s no pleasure for this beaten team

¶ 12 Leave a comment on verse 12 0 who collect their thoughts
as they walk, heads down,
back to the halfway line.

¶ 13 Leave a comment on verse 13 0 There’s barely time to kick off;
As that ruddy goal against came right at the death.
The fourth minute of stoppage time, no less.

¶ 14 Leave a comment on verse 14 0 Oh, the heartbreak.
It all feels so empty now.
A vacuum of hurt in space hope once filled.

¶ 15 Leave a comment on verse 15 0 Oi, come on ref,
You’ve got it so wrong
You said just three minutes but kept going on

¶ 16 Leave a comment on verse 16 0 Come on lino, it was offside!
Stop the game, for we need that
vital point away from home

¶ 17 Leave a comment on verse 17 0 that we were clinging to
for our cause.
The flag never comes, of course.

¶ 18 Leave a comment on verse 18 0 So we head towards the
exit and back to the car.
It’s dark

¶ 19 Leave a comment on verse 19 0 and our hats, gloves and scarves
no longer shield us from the cold.
We can’t be consoled

¶ 20 Leave a comment on verse 20 0 for a little while at least.
But it will pass and we’ll
be back in the real world again.

¶ 21 Leave a comment on verse 21 0 At the minute, though, we
are left feeling low.
There’s nothing to show

¶ 22 Leave a comment on verse 22 0 for our efforts and the M6 won’t move
for an hour or two
at least.

¶ 23 Leave a comment on verse 23 0 We’re in a mood and
we speak only when spoken to.
It’s just me and you

¶ 24 Leave a comment on verse 24 0 and we put the world to rights.
We ignore our phones
and we’d kick the cat when we get back

¶ 25 Leave a comment on verse 25 0 but she knows the score and
is nowhere to be seen.
We’re left to wonder what might have been.

¶ 26 Leave a comment on verse 26 0 Football, you see,
is our religion and a
microcosm of life to boot.

¶ 27 Leave a comment on verse 27 0 You can’t appreciate the highs
without the lows.
It’s just the way it goes.

¶ 28 Leave a comment on verse 28 0 We go through the agony and despair
because it makes the ecstasy better.
We always believe.

¶ 29 Leave a comment on verse 29 0 Cos at the end of the day,
when all said and done
Whether the battle has been lost or won

¶ 30 Leave a comment on verse 30 0 it’s the belief that keeps us going
along with the knowledge that we only go through it
because it means something to us both.

¶ 31 Leave a comment on verse 31 0 We realise it doesn’t really matter
whether our team win or lose;
If we’re top of the world or singing the blues

¶ 32 Leave a comment on verse 32 0 As it’s just a scramble for points
in league tables that get
lost on the shelf of life.

¶ 33 Leave a comment on verse 33 0 So we should treat both impostors
just the same.
It is only a game,

¶ 34 Leave a comment on verse 34 0 as our friends will say.
And they’re right,
whether we care to admit it or not.

¶ 35 Leave a comment on verse 35 0 So if you don’t gloat
when you are winning
and laugh away that dreadful loss

¶ 36 Leave a comment on verse 36 0 And start again at your beginnings
And never speak another word
of that dross

¶ 37 Leave a comment on verse 37 0 If you can go through it all again
this time next week,
more Saturday fun

¶ 38 Leave a comment on verse 38 0 then yours is the game and everything that goes with it
And what is more…
You’ll be a fan, my son.