AS HONEST AS THE DAY IS LONG
( For Bobby
Charlton )
The equal power of both left and right
No-one knew which was
your strongest,
To you there was no such thing
As a weaker foot
You
embodied everything thats good
About football for your country
Tough, fair minded, totally reliable
You never let us down, on the pitch or off
Perhaps
because you never seemed as young,
Had the pop star look of others,
Or just because you looked like someone
From our family photo album meant we trusted you
That and
the goals you scored
The spectacular, power blasting net rippling scorchers
That we all envied and tried to emulate,
But never could
But this
poem cannot be complete
Without a special mention
Of that one thing we remember
Your own individual flair
When it
comes to the comb over,
You made it your very own
And the fact that minutes into any match
It looked like a lop sided pony tail trailing behind
And
because of that you were an ordinary god,
One of us, one among us blessed but not above us
For that and everything else, a nation loves you
Uncle Bobby
Paul Cookson |