|

Proud to Wear the Shirts

mark merriman

Wednesday, December 1st, 2010

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 Red letter day in ’85
when I bought my first
Town shirt, plain red
with thin white pinstripe.
I did it to declare my
unswerving support for
Lou Macari’s red and white army.
No sponsors then, of course,
just the maker’s name
tacked on in thin white stitching.

2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 When ‘footie’ got sexy
along came the sponsors:
GWR, Burmah, Castrol
and latterly 4-4-2
and the shirts changed too,
away shirts to offset the red:
green splodge of early 90’s;
‘Brazil’ gold to mark the team’s
one season in the Premier League;
ironic really – we got thrashed
most weeks;
blue and black quarters;
navy blue, plain white
and now just black,
like Chelsea really
only we concede more goals.

3 Leave a comment on verse 3 0 And all these shirts lie dormant
in my drawers at home
testament to my blind
loyalty and devotion.
I wear the newest ones
to games, around the house
and when we have TD days
at school.
Sad really;
I need to get out more.

© mark merriman september 2004

Notes

I’ve got around 40 Swindon shirts & may have to accept that I am a victim of OCD.

Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/proud-to-wear-the-shirts/