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Until the Final Whistle

Sharon Jones

Wednesday, January 24th, 2018

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 Sunday park leaguers
Premier dreamers
With Beckham’s hairstyles
But not his goals
The dead eye on managers
Whose hearts win matches
But whose tactics won’t
Patience for sale for the price of 3 points
And football with its sponsor laden body
Pregnant with adverts and hype
And the ten per cent soul
Trading contracts that melt in the hands
Like chocolates in the mouth
Drinkers V Thinkers
The eloquent crap of a Gallic redeemer
Those 3 little words Red or Blue?
And football cracks open the soul
And finds itself home
Beautifully blemished exquisitely flawed
Tribal obsessive vulnerable mercenary
Childish, its language frantic
With a boot room philosophy
Scarred with its numbers
And badges and emblems
And legends and blood…
And football
The addictive drug
That can’t give enough
The lover the villain the hero the cheat
The unrepentant soul the unforgiving priest
Temperamental insatiable
Demanding and raw
Porcelain passes
From the backyard academy
Of greyhounds and donkeys
Of seasons over by Christmas
Thrown out with the left over turkeys
Broken toys and deflated balloons
And then it rewards with its promise
Of glory to perish the bloodless
And each stone left unmoved
And football
Smooth talk and wisdom
Spread on a platter
Of pundits and experts
Badge kissers and analysis
Sweated and replayed
From the angles of cameras
Bent over like lovers
With nothing more to lose
Whilst mobile phones
Rest on training cones
Catwalk boots Armani suits
Percentage style and photo shoots
New Stadia New Football
Old Money still talks the best game of all.

Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/until-the-final-whistle-3/