"We've won! We've won!"
before madly leaping about the room.
Oblivious he was,
to the wear and tear on the carpet
and the certainty, or so it seemed,
that the settee would be ground to a pulp,
until the phone rang. Then changing tack
he leapt and danced across the hall, and back,
flushed and choking on his words.
And when it rang again, it was his mum again.
So I like Bayern was there - just.
Which was why I didn't say,
it's only a game, or as nothing
compared to the suffering in Kosovo.
But with reverence:
"Shall we go to Manchester?"
Rearing up and Schmeichel like, he lunged screaming:
"I love you! "I love you!"
And hugged me like I was the European Cup.
__________
© Cormac McCloskey
These two poems recall the 1998-99 football season, when Manchester United, the first and only club in English football, won "the treble": The Premiership. The F.A. Cup, And the UEFA Champions league. They came from behind, in injury time to beat Bayern Munich, 2.1 At that time, Jenny was already living away from home: working in Norwich.
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