Football Poets

Playing to Escape

¶ 1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 As long as the ball is in my hands,
I don’t worry about all the things that are out of my hands.
I’m free to play and forget it all,
it’s just me and the net and the ball,
When I keep I can truly fly,
I feel as though I’ll never die,
but then I’ve got to hit the ground,
and turn to face the world I’ve found.
I wish I was blind like the human flock,
I wish I was someone they didn’t mock,
I wish I couldn’t see what was wrong with the world,
couldn’t see all the evils that from the weak are furled.
With my eyes they’d all be colourblind,
no casual racism to rot their collective mind,
and on their leads their led by fools,
as propaganda echoes through our schools.
I’d like to watch the news without despair,
I’d like to look on and discard my care,
for the every day evils we could prevent,
and most, unseen, will not repent.
I wish I could wear a superficial smile,
wish I was oblivious all the while,
to how the rich rise higher and the poor simply fall,
sometimes I wish I knew nothing at all.
I wish I could live their existence, so queer,
but I know I can’t for life’s too dear.
I wish I could live with my head in the sand,
I wish I didn’t understand,
that what’s occurring is far from good,
that things aren’t going as they should.
I wish that I was unaware,
free to live without a care,
but hark, I sing my lonely song,
the need for vision has kept me strong.
I need the flock to realise,
to see, not with collective eyes,
that evil is not far away,
that while we conform it’s here to stay,
it’s the common problems we all ignore,
this indifference I abhour,
Let’s flee the dungeon, fight our demons,
Let’s right the wrongs, for are we not humans?
But it’s easier to just keep playing,
so between the sticks is where I’m staying,
locked up in the goal-mouth cage,
left alone with my useless rage,
How many more like me will stay sombre and silent,
while the world remains bloody and violent?
That way we can’t change a thing,
and that way, none of us ever win.

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