AH, MANCHESTER UNITED

AH, MANCHESTER UNITED

Ah, Manchester United
just like during the blitz
we took a direct hit

bomb not loaded
with TNT, Vorsprung mit
Technik Waffen
loaded with
Stateside shit

two in a row
actually

we
muscled up
against City
with all
out false nines
and fake
fullbacks

and forgot
how to play

then our little
archangel in process
           (looks

more
like an imp)
entire foundation
for our future

now wants greener
pastures in hot
languid
Spain (could
settle for
Catalonia, the whole
world wants him
already
   knows his name)

but talking of names,
this name
     once illustrious,
is
   beginning to
fade

thing is
      this is said to be
an illustrious name
this is supposed to be
ultimate
football Mecca, given
the moniker
Theatre of Dreams

but gravity
cruel, greedy, only
in it for
the money gravity
got its
finger
       in the half-
time pie, light-
bending coils about
this club,
     strangling
its players, chopping blocking
its teams

begging
    a best fit for
purpose answer to
this question:

why do so many
coming here
      to play
lose
their way?

be like footnotes 
         to the script
die like
extras
    in an epic, actors on stage
in a tragedy play?

United are back
United
are back

the ghosts of so many managers
desperate to
     hear that again.