'All Time Top Three' by Steve Ely

Following on from the excellent interview with South Yorkshire poet Steve Ely, here's some of his work. I'll let it speak for itself, but remind you that his new book 'Oswald's Book of Hours' is available for pre-order from Amazon.

All Time Top Three

In reverse order:

Away, Kirkby Independent, 1993:

taking a long ball from Wack,

over my shoulder and onto my chest

in the channel by the right hand edge of the box,

with Popeye screaming for it square

and the centre half closing and jostling,

I let it bounce once

then took it on the full

and watched incredulous

as it screamed thirty diagonal yards

rising all the way

over the keeper into the top left corner of the net.

At home against the Harlequin, 1997:

I sprung the offside trap,

nipping in on a dinked ball from Growler.

The keeper dashed out into the ‘D’

making himself big

and leapt at me, a reckless imminent impact.

I did the only thing I could

and sliced across the waist high-bouncing ball,

sending it high and vertical over the keeper

before taking the clatter

and picking myself up

to see the topspin I applied

drop the ball into the net

and Benno diving on me and shouting 

“Who’s this fucking Brazilian we’ve got playing for us?”

Away, Spion Kop, 1987:

the ball broke towards their centre half

with plenty of time, but looking complacent,

so I sprinted at him

made it a 50/50 and won it,

the ball spinning loose

ten yards further towards their goal.

I jumped up and went after it,

two-footing the covering full back

sending the ball squirting

to the edge of their box

where I emptied the lunging keeper

and smashed the ball into the unguarded net

for my second and last goal

of the game, nevertheless completing my hat-trick

(Guy Marley, who scored a header

from a corner in the first half

was unregistered,

so Jamie, our manager and press liaison

credited his goal to me, incidentally bestowing

the back-page headline, 'Ely Hat-Trick Sinks Kop'

on the back page of the Hemsworth and South Elmsall Express.)

_______

 Zack Wilson is the author of 'Stumbles and Half Slips' from Epic Rites Press. Also available from Amazon.com.