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Shoe shine

Joe Cullen

Sunday, May 29th, 2011

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 Galatasaray one Fenerbache nil.
Half-time interval.
They shuffle past the giant screen
and up the stairway.
Big-boned Turkish men
denied by English sentiments
of health and safety.
Sparking up already
before they reach the neutral ground
of Kingsland High Street
where they puff and spraff
to hearts content.

2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 Then comes the shoe-shine man.
A contraption made of wood
no human foot could fit.
Vessels of burnished bronze
transported via spice roads
through Istanbul and Split.
Black arabic.
Brushes of Calabrese.
Who could resist?

3 Leave a comment on verse 3 0 They form a line.
Each man, his shoes caressed
and buffed to perfect sheen,
drops homage in the battered tin
then returns below
to a second half
much duller than above.

Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/shoe-shine/