Football Poets

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

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