Football Poets

Happy Birthday Sir Trevor Brooking

Happy Birthday
Sir Trevor Brooking
76 today
Flights of fancy
Whim and impulse
Majesty and elegance
In his white and red blood cells
From birth in Barking
To the Empyrean heights
Of Ron Greenwood’s England
Only his mentor and muse
Could have brought the best
Out of him
Brooking floated and fluttered
Like the most graceful bird
On a whispering breeze
Balletic as Nureyev
Across the muddy battlefields
Of Upton Park
An East End national treasure
Where once Ron and Reggie Kray
Once ruled the roost
With evil, nefarious deeds
Sir Trevor Brooking now
Became lord of the manor
With the right honourable
Bobby Moore
Equally as beautiful
On the eye
Never rattled or perturbed
Remotely, for a minute
Brooking stooped to conquer
In the 1980 FA Cup Final
Of course he did
The unlikeliest headed winner
But that was his forte
We knew that
Against the Gunners
Silenced for a while
Red vapours of defeated smoke
Drifting mournfully
Over the old Wembley
Arsenal beaten for a change
But that’s medieval history
And then there was that shot
Explosive as cordite
Amid Hungarian goulash
In World Cup qualifying
Conflict and battle
Sir Trevor drives home
A wondrous dreamlike
Goal that hits the stanchion
Of the net
In Budapest
Of course it was a goal
But the Nep Stadium
Could hardly believe
The evidence of their
Startled eyes
Sir Trevor Brooking
Decorating hundreds
Of canvases
With artistic brushes
Gliding and pirouetting
Stateliness in claret and blue
Peacock plumage
Skipping gingerly
Through minefields of tackles
Shielding the ball
Protecting it tenderly
Like the kid in the street
Who owns it, treats
It like his best friend
Swaying this way
Dancing the next
Trapping it gorgeously
This precious diamond
At his twinkling feet
His relationship with a ball
Lifelong and affectionate
Happy Birthday
Sir Trevor Brooking
A stunning example
To all

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