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Patrick Gerard

Pat Ingoldsby

Wednesday, April 21st, 2004

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 Da

2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 I love the way you laughed.
Good deep and hearty mirth
far down inside you.

3 Leave a comment on verse 3 0 I loved the special feeling
when you asked me
to fetch something from your pocket
– the faint smell of tobacco
– the rubber feel of your pouch
– the cold of your keys and coins
– the shivers when I touched your hanky.

4 Leave a comment on verse 4 0 I loved the way you put soccer into my heart
the way it was in yours
– kicking a little ball with me in the back yard
– heading a balloon in the hall
– push ha’penny on the table
– Subutteo on the floor
– standing beside me in Dalymount
cracking Cadbury’s in half
– feeling my heart break when Dayo ran rings
around you out the back and suddenly I knew
that you couldn’t really play at all.

5 Leave a comment on verse 5 0 I loved the way we sat near the fire.

6 Leave a comment on verse 6 0 I loved the sound of you downstairs
when I was small in bed.

7 Leave a comment on verse 7 0 I loved the angle of your finger sticking out
the crazy way you held your cup.

8 Leave a comment on verse 8 0 I loved the sizzle when your tobacco spit hit the hearth.

9 Leave a comment on verse 9 0 I loved the sounds of you down the garden
metal whanging earth and stones
breaking up the clay.

10 Leave a comment on verse 10 0 I loved the way your mother had seen Uachtarán na h-Eireann
putting out his bin.

11 Leave a comment on verse 11 0 I loved the way you always put us first.

12 Leave a comment on verse 12 0 I miss you terribly.

13 Leave a comment on verse 13 0 I really do.

Notes

Editor’s note :
reproduced by kind permission of the author

Uachtarán na h-Eireann = President of Ireland

Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/patrick-gerard/