Sarah Wright
Consecrated Ground: Arsenal, January 1997
Quietly we go where you had never been
in all your breathing days,
past the empty changing rooms and through
that famous tunnel, out into the sacred
space. A shock of sky and air and colour,
enamel-fresh, as in a Book of Hours.
Your Tres Riches Heures, my darling.
Bright banks of newly-minted red and white
hugging a green arena, bristling with silence;
more gladiatorial than knightly field.
The groundsman gently leads us to the spot,
the turf removed, a small discreet incision,
bang in front of all the crowds to come.
A cracking view, you couldn’t wish for better.
Now, fifty faithful years along the line
since you, caught young, wide-eyed and gangly-legged,
pledged your unfaltering allegiance
to all that frantic theatre of intensity,
the shadow-essence of you lingers here,
tucked in where you’d appreciate the joke
–but seriously agree appropriate,
because to you it’s consecrated ground.
in all your breathing days,
past the empty changing rooms and through
that famous tunnel, out into the sacred
space. A shock of sky and air and colour,
enamel-fresh, as in a Book of Hours.
Your Tres Riches Heures, my darling.
Bright banks of newly-minted red and white
hugging a green arena, bristling with silence;
more gladiatorial than knightly field.
The groundsman gently leads us to the spot,
the turf removed, a small discreet incision,
bang in front of all the crowds to come.
A cracking view, you couldn’t wish for better.
Now, fifty faithful years along the line
since you, caught young, wide-eyed and gangly-legged,
pledged your unfaltering allegiance
to all that frantic theatre of intensity,
the shadow-essence of you lingers here,
tucked in where you’d appreciate the joke
–but seriously agree appropriate,
because to you it’s consecrated ground.
Page(s) 39
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