|

The Alaves Shirt

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 Two ways to wear your heart:
on your sleeve or on your scarf.

2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 Ten years old, sitting on
the stanchions of the Kop.
Around my waist, my father’s arms,
around my neck a knitted scarf,
my Mother’s woolen pearls:

3 Leave a comment on verse 3 0 Slater
Byrne
Moran
Twentyman
Leishman
Arrowsmith
Morrisey
Melia
A’Court
Liddell
Hickson
Hunt

4 Leave a comment on verse 4 0 My heroes stitched
red-on-white
white-on-red.

5 Leave a comment on verse 5 0 And forty years later,
the Alaves shirt:
a light blue list
of all their season
ticket holders
stitched into the jersey.

6 Leave a comment on verse 6 0 Like you, my love,
threaded through
every season
of my one-name heart.

Notes

Liverpool 5-4 Alaves. UEFA Cup Final, 2001.


Click here to visit Eddie’s website

Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/the-alaves-shirt/