Thank you to Nick Beswick for this poem, if you have any sport inspired creative works – send them to claire@sportparkinsons.org and we will feature as many as we can!
Football and me – Pennine Parkies FC
match day
and the opposition
free from any condition such as ours
look across and sneer
in ungainly mob
we twitch, we move
we shake, we shuffle
we look incapable
we talk in muffle
they look, they stare,
they quickly judge
perhaps we’re drunks
they shoo their children
away from us
for fear of damnation
for fear of contamination
they look at us
in pure disgust
but when the whistle
blows the start
we move the ball
from steady foot to steady foot
they look, they stare,
they continue to judge
they care not a jot
how much they misjudge
as slick pass upon pass
is finished deftly but surely
they refuse to believe
they will not be budged
ignorant
of the facts
they misjudge
they misjudge
we look, we smile
we enjoy our moment
our moment when football
means precious minutes
we can glide on the pitch
no longer we shake
no longer we twitch
no, for those glorious minutes
as the match it unfurls
we are free from our shakes
we are back
we
are
back
not being who they want us to be
not being who we were
or even who we are
but simply just being
just being
that’s all
free from constraint
like artists we paint
such images of joy
which nourish the dark
moments to come
until the next game
and the next time
we leave them now
the non PwPs
wondering how
looking ill
looking pale ill at ease
the whistle blows
the game is done
and as we thank them
one by one
we see them shuffle,
we see them fumble
we see them stare
we hear them mumble
sorry to have judged
so sorry to misjudge
you are no different
off the field as you are on it
our knowing smiles
we see it every day
which is why we love football
the positive power
we take from these
sublime moments of play
nourish our body, our mind
and our resilient soul
until the next time
the place we want to be
our team, our voice
Pennine Parkies FC