Football is for Girls

13 May 2015

The Young Creative Awards 2015 took place on 15 May earlier this year. So last year's Creative Writing winner has penned us a football poem...

Football is for GirlsIllustration by Raphael Achache
A poem by Bridie Squires

PE lessons at catholic school
meant a quivering
red-faced teacher

who made us stand
on sodden grass
strapped in itchy shin pads

who made us zig-zag through
them yellow plastic markers.
We wanted to wear them as hats.

When I were a lass
me and me inflated dad
marched over Trent Bridge

to the Forest match,
through swarms of lads,
past clinks of pint glass.

We stood with folded arms
scowling at the ref
for being “Barmeh!”

But when the ball got rolling
and the hoard of blokes
with zipped-up coats

felt their bellies roaring, it
Mexican waved
through the red chairs

down to the perfect turf
coursing the roots
of Nottingham earth

and up through the boots
of a man who scores
when he shoots.

And, in PE, after we got
warmed up
we kept those goals

made from jumpers and coats
like we were defending
our planet from asteroids.

And when the sweat broke
through, we could feel
it
too.

The 2015 Nottingham Young Creative Awards takes place on Friday 15 May at Nottingham Playhouse. Tickets are free - please contact the venue for details. Bridie Squires was the winner of the Creative Writing category (19-24) at the 2014 Awards. Illustration by Raphael Achache.

 

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