"HILLSBOROUGH ECHOES" by DAVID STEAD

HILLSBOROUGH ECHOES: DAVID STEAD (After Carol Ann Duffy)



Two small crowds in one pub that Saturday

in April eighty-nine. One shares its name.

The other mirrors their hope – to win the game.

“They kick off in two hours!” - two miles away.



But now the passing honours, now displays

of pride. First Merseyside’s young hearts that burn.

The Forests grin and bear it, wait their turn...

The Nottingham, that semi-final day.



And every one would have a memory

of how they met last year. “Will this year be

the Double, or Quits?” They all walked on, to see!



Stone-boxed, back home. Perched high on terraced edge

-       my attic view: the Don; green park; that stadium

whose sound waves lap the Crescent auditorium –

from that shoebox crouched blue on my window ledge.



Sense kick-off. Hear those chants! Wait for that glorious

ground swell that hails attack; roars ecstatic –

cut off. To dead ball – not yet ominous...



Along the Mersey now it’s very late.

Phone-boxed mothers; children; partners; wives; mates - still cry.

For each of them, the clock will too long be

stopped dead at fifteen minutes after three.

For none of us can ever say ‘Goodbye’!” –

without the Truth and Justice we all wait.