Hearing the shouts, differing volumes, guessing which side they belong to.
Waiting for the horns,
Watching the roads fill up,
Wondering who would prevail.
Then the silence,
No more cheers.
The horns start up again
And that’s it.
Another defeat, another victory
Who knows?
The cheers are loud,
The echo shapes across the leaden sky.
The peace and the quiet
About to be shattered,
With which coloured flags?
There are hooters, but no car horns.
The time takes longer
The clock seems to have stopped
The cheers that come are not English
Or are they?
The park is a good place
To listen to a penalty shoot out
Whichever side you want to win.
Then the car horns start again
Italian car horns
Not English cheers
Nor English jeers
Just silence.
Ade Clewlow MBE 