31
Black Lights

A wet wild night in a Scouse January,
and fifty two thousand eyes
followed a foreign ball
as it swirled amid a horrid squall,
and Nando held his head up high.
The Man-attacking Carra came in,
raised his elbow like a hammer,
and the old metal stands rang

like the sweet silver song of a lark
wrapped round a lamppost.
Nino lay alone, racked on his back,
squinting as the lights blurred out,
leaving a black, mizzen rectangle
squaring off the foreseeable.
His beautiful face......... cracked!
The steam rose from him like his ghost.