Monday, March 14, 2005
David O’Leary
With its rugby league and
Disregard for the definite article,
The tyke, Leeds, eluded me.
We never got on: I touched it through rubber gloves,
And it was unimpressed.
The giddy run to the European
Semi-finals (cheated by Raúl's hand: that’s football)
Went unnoticed while
We sheltered in the bivouac of our mania,
Chasing a sock-full of shrapnel down the slot of a
Headingley quiz machine.
O’Leary’s diffidence almost brought me in,
But belonging would not be forced. Now he’s at another
Unlovable team, immune to the glances of neutrals;
Just another wealthy, grey-haired man sat untidily around the edges.
|
With its rugby league and
Disregard for the definite article,
The tyke, Leeds, eluded me.
We never got on: I touched it through rubber gloves,
And it was unimpressed.
The giddy run to the European
Semi-finals (cheated by Raúl's hand: that’s football)
Went unnoticed while
We sheltered in the bivouac of our mania,
Chasing a sock-full of shrapnel down the slot of a
Headingley quiz machine.
O’Leary’s diffidence almost brought me in,
But belonging would not be forced. Now he’s at another
Unlovable team, immune to the glances of neutrals;
Just another wealthy, grey-haired man sat untidily around the edges.
|
