blown it

remember when you were a kid

and you got some tracing paper

and wrapped it round that thing

you use on your hair –

and blew to get a tune out of it?

a sort of cross between

a rasp and a kazoo

rasping and

kazzooing

making music

that irritated

and annoyed

your whole family

well

last night

during a particularly boring

football matc...

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WORLD CUP 1966 personal recollections

Blue dressed bridesmaid

Bolt down the food, get through the speeches.

Drink up the wine – what’s the time?

Time to put down the serviettes.

Time to …………

Tension is building - Tighter, harder, bolder

The groom, the best man and every one of the ushers are at the starting gate.

More interested in the future than the present.

...

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Deutschland, Deutschland

über the moon

you won’t be sober

any time soon.

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Black stars in the dark that shone so bright,

Pan continental sparks were reignited,

In a flood-lit calabash, man what a sight!

Eleven Ghanaians became Africa United.

For the global Diaspora of Africans whose numbers stretched to billions,

A short but welcome distraction from conflict and debt,

From the highest to the lowest, military to civilians,

The to...

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(This one's for Ray, and all the others out there) 

Brazil in Mexico;

Bonetti’s blunder and Gazza’s tears;

Pele, Eusebio, Cruyff;

North Korea, when they were plucky, not dangerous and mad;

The often-absent Tartan army;

Beckenbauer’s grace and Zidane’s rage;

Argentina!  Rattin’s dismissal, Maradona’s revenge;

Can Drogba carry Africa’s flag?

Wembley, the ...

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