Bubbles

We all need heroes and villains:

sometimes there’s a post-width’s

difference between the two.

Maybe the boss has watched

Wenders’s film, but nowadays

the goalkeeper’s not the one who’s scared

and for all the talk of knees taken,

from people whose claimed roots go deep

into this green, unpleasant land,

it’s jealousy that colours the vile

bile spewed for this or that miss,

losing ‘their’ entitled prize.

Would they step up, pull on the shirt,

face the guardian at the gate

and gamble a golden future on the outcome?

Paid fah-zunds and can’t score a pen,

I could do that – gizza job,

but they can’t and never will.

Some dreams fly so, so high,

but they are bubbles

and full of hot air.