Poem of the Day
This week's Poem of the Day is taken from Mike Di Placido's new pamphlet, Theatre of Dreams.
An ex-professional footballer, Mike Di Placido’s debut pamphlet takes its title from his magical trial with Manchester United in the early seventies. His time there is warmly recorded in snapshots of Messrs. Busby, Stiles, Law and, not least, his fourth person of The Trinity, George Best.
BEST
The Cliff, Manchester, 1970
Too overawed to speak
so I brushed shoulders
as we trooped off from training.
You signed autographs
for young girls who’d slipped through the gates,
as I bent down and fiddled with a lace.
Then, amazingly, we were alone.
You in front – my fourth person of The Trinity:
that gunslinger waddle; head slightly to one side;
as though carrying some brilliantly jewelled cross,
the price you had to pay
for re-defining how a game could be played.
Me? Third division only, I’m afraid
(and not long there either),
with a cross of my own to bear
and a grave lesson to learn – namely this:
that I could never, ever, be me
as long as I was trying to be you.
The Poetry Business receives financial assistance from Arts Council England.
