Football Poets

The Tractor Boys are back

¶ 1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 So Ipswich Town are back
In the Premier League
Boiling furnace
Let’s go crazy in the fenlands
It’s been simply ages
Since the agricultural heartlands
Of Suffolk witnessed
Seasonal harvests of goals
And goal scorers
Fallow grounds and
Hollow defeats
For seemingly an eternity
Nothing to lift broken spirits
At Portman Road
The end of the world
If not quite
For decade upon decade
But then the Phoenix
Rose from the ashes
And today the Tractor Boys
Ploughed the ultimate furrow
Ipswich now buoyed
By the memory
Of victorious Sir Alf
The man who reluctantly
Danced with the World Cup
When his mind gave him
Permission to do so
Back in 1966 for England
But then Crawford and Phillips
Had been hot as the sun
Up front
Several years before
Before Ipswich won the old
First Division
League Championship
Barely believable
But future generations
Of Tractor Boys
Have planted the seeds
Of another revolution
Sir Bobby Robson
Yet another England legend
Once coaxed and nurtured
The sprightly striplings
Of Eric Gates, Trevor Whymark,
The much missed David Johnson
Goals in every suburb, town
Village and City
Of the British shires
Mick Mills at the back
Like an immovable door
None ever passed his way
Kevin Beattie, stern, solid
As the brick wall made of
The strongest cement
And Clive Woods
Finding his feet in the
Heather and gorse
Of prickly defences
A winger of the highest class
Teasing, twisting, humiliating
Dropping shoulders, dummying
With dashing distinction
Then floating crosses for
Johnson who never shirked
Headers and persevered
Until whistle’s end
Ipswich so close to winning
The old First Division
But then narrowly missing
Out by a hairs breadth
A red combine harvester
Named Liverpool had far
Too many missiles in
Their elegant repertoire
Never mind
Perhaps their day will come
Still, let’s bask in the glow
Of today’s Ipswich
Back on nodding terms
With the millionaire elite
Of the Premier League’s
Movers and shakers
Like that richly furnished
Mahogany cabinet
We’d always varnished
With loving care
The loveliest porcelain
Ornament that time
Will never forget
Welcome back Ipswich
One of those oldest friends
Save me a seat at the
Emotional reunion
When the Premier League
Gathers together again
In August, it should be
In august surroundings

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