Football Poets

England, dear England

England dear England
Our land of lazy, languid
Wind turbines
Past turbulent highways
And byways
Rushing and racing
Past hyperactive motorways
Chocolate box villages
Timeless as florins and groats
From many centuries past
Yesterday the Beautiful Game
Embodied our dreams and hopes
Where cosy cottages
Sleep peacefully
Under the reassuring mid-day sun
Suddenly the post office
Next to the church hall
Show faith and ardent religion
To an expectant country
Not far from England’s significant
Medieval castles
On hillsides that stand
Like proud sentinels
On magisterial hillsides
England beat Mexico
The World Cup is now
Well and truly alive
With roaring lions on
Our chest
Three of them of course
The balmy, sweltering heat
Of midsummer summits
Shadows lengthening
Admiringly over cricket
Wickets while
World Cup football
Delivers
England’s perfect riposte
To the cynics and naysayers
Who said we couldn’t
Bring it home?
Of course we can
Harry Kane, flawless
As those velvet strips
Of farmland
Where shades and shadows
Dance and glance
Over a thousand windowsills
And twitching lace curtains
In the land of gossipy England
Did you hear it?
Hey Jude does it again
But not over Strawberry Fields
More lethal than a guided missile
Goals in his rampant repertoire
Jude Bellingham scores yet again
England bouncing up and down
Exploding beer gardens
England flush with patriotism
It could be this year of all years
England see off the co-hosts
Of Mexico with a mariachi melody
Early morning full English
Breakfasts were the order of the day
In the Lake District, Peak District,
Chilterns and Quantocks
World Cup football celebrations
Are far more important
But at 3’o clock in the morning
The priority was England’s
Blossoming potential
Guehi, Rice, Gordon,
Kane and Bellingham
Rashford and Saka
Breathing fire and brimstone
Yes we can do this one
In a mesmerising humdinger
At the Azteca
End to end football
Barely able to take a breath
Ding dong
Football as it should be played
Penalties again
The ultimate emotional narrative
England storm into two goal lead
Then find yet more lightning
Before Mexico heave their
Way back into contention
Then Harry Kane
Skipper supreme
Drives home
One of those familiar
Authoritative penalties
No trouble whatsoever
Emphatic signature
Underlined
No way back for Mexico
Surely not
Arguments settled
England home and hosed
But then Mexico wag their tail
It’s 3-2 to England
And we can see paradise
11 minutes of injury time
Feel like two decades
But then the final whistle
Goes and dear Blighty
Have done it,
Over the finishing line
Now for Nordic conquests
Hopefully against Norway
Where the Vikings await
Rowing forcefully towards
Their quarter final date
With Thomas Tuchel’s
Stately galleon
Or perhaps a leisurely
Cruise boat
This could be the match
That finally pushes
England towards the top of the world
That sunlit apogee
Where 60 years of hollow vacuums
Are finally history
Yesterday’s fish and chip paper
Ancient documents
From the Bronze Age
Yes England this is our time
Or maybe not
Norway next
Of course it’ll be hard
And punishing
It always has been
Then there’s Argentina,
France, Spain
So many nations
Of world class heritage
England though
Have been here before
And we know what to do
Roll up those industrious sleeves
Knuckle down to business
Feel the mood at home
And just lift the Jules Rimet Cup
We can do it again
It can’t be rocket science
Or Quantum Physics
Just leave it to Harry Kane
It’s simple as ABC
World Champions again
Better late than never
It has to be England

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