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You Can Return But You Can Never Go Back Like It Was

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 well I’m back by the ground that I grew up around
and I’m locked in the feeling within
been too many years-been though pain been through tears
but I’m back at the ol’ Bridge again –
so who but the faithful – the loyal – the grateful
can fathom or quite understand
like a prodigal child who’s returned from the wild
why I feel like a ball in your hand?

2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 as we head past a row of old houses that glow
with their kitchens of silver and white
I can just see the stand like some mystical land
made of steel made of plastic and light –
while the rain is torrential yet strangely essential
for nothing can dampen this crowd
this is where it began – where I stood and I sang
and my heart wants to scream it out loud

3 Leave a comment on verse 3 0 but what else remains of those long ago games
just a sign where the ‘Shed’ used to loom
and above in the rain is that old weather vane
where that player still spins through the gloom –
and security’s tighter than Westlife first-nighters
the surface is zippy and fast
as the rhythm begins and the goals they pile in
how the crowd find their humour at last

4 Leave a comment on verse 4 0 and chant as they will with the score at four-nil
they sing “boring” yes “boring-Chelsea”
and “four-nil – we only need one-nil”
and we’re back where we all wanna be –
and later I’m there on the Fulham Road where
that ol’ cup-winning bus rode on high
where we waved & we sighed & we screamed and we cried
but it passed and the years rolled on by –

5 Leave a comment on verse 5 0 then I’m back on the street where my ten-year-old feet
kicked tennis balls late in the night
‘til I’d crawl back in-doors with my rips and my sores
and pretend I’d been caught in some fight –
now I search for the chalk of the goals on the walls
on the road where we once used to play
under rain under stars between one or two cars
on those long ago magical days

6 Leave a comment on verse 6 0 and I really can’t say just what took me that way
to behave like some love-stricken child
how on passing my home and the first one I’d known
why I stopped and just stood there a while –
but I lost all my cool and I felt like a fool
when I climbed up and knocked on the door
of the house where I grew filled with people so new
and forgot that it’s not like before

7 Leave a comment on verse 7 0 for we live in a time where we’re watching for signs
and we’re waiting with eyes filled with fear
so when some sad ol’ guy comes nostalgic’lly by
we say ‘sorry you’re not welcome here’ –
and I felt like a thief who’s been wallowed in grief
when the owner confronted me then
for my words sounded weird all disjointed and scared
and she said “please don’t call here again”

8 Leave a comment on verse 8 0 but there’s always a catch – when you’re moved by a match
and you find yourself acting insane
for time won’t stand still though your hopes sometimes will
in this crazy but beautiful game –
and I wanted to say “listen up it’s ok –
I’d feel strange of you called at MY door..
you have nothing to fear I’ll be gone ou.t of here”
that was then but it ain’t here no more –

9 Leave a comment on verse 9 0 you can spend all your life – just in search of some light
that shone once.. way down mem’ry lane
but whatever you do -once your colours or blue
it can always just grab you the same –
and I guess we all know that wherever we go
like that road in the Wizard of Oz
you can always return – when your heart starts to yearn
but you just can’t go back like it was

Notes

The above is a 100% true story.(honest) and took place this last weekend…Chelsea 4 Blackburn Rovers 0 (Gudjohnsen 3,Duff 1)
Also turned out to be my first live game (excluding Sky!) for 2 years!
(I’ve been nursing my Cancer-stricked lady through a horrible time, for that whole period,for those who don’t know.)
I also loved the weekend headline pun..”can’t keep that Eidur down!”
This was for me ,personally,an un-believable emotional roller-coaster ride as they say..It followed on from the delight in being invited by Chelsea to the game with the Kick It Out children.Standing in that tunnel, looking out with the kids and players at the waiting crowd as they ran out ,was awesome. What followed after the game on walking back to Earls Court Station was unprecedented and spontaneous, but something I’d wanted to do for years. (Go back to visit my old birthplace,home and street).I’d always put it off for fear of freaking out the new owners..I was proved right, but at least I knocked on my old childhood front door, just off the Ifield Road and a stones throw from the Stamford Bridge ground.(and we sure threw a few!)
As i walked away, I could almost see another headline..
Returning Football Poet Freaks Out Nervous Local Resident!!
or…worse still..
Sad Blues Fan Stuck In Past Surprises New Wharfedale Street Owner !”

You live and learn,, as Dom Jolly might say!

Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/you-can-return-but-you-can-never-go-back-like-it-was/?shared=email&msg=fail