Almanac (Cricket) Poetry: ‘These Baggy Greens’ by Patrik Klika Dempsey

 

 

 

 

 

THESE BAGGY GREENS

Have you ever seen a man in a magic green cap?
The way boos rain down in Brum and just roll off his back

The way day one greets him with tainted trumpets and drums
An army singing barmy: ‘Go back from where you’ve come!’

Where he’s come from are the great southern sunburnt sands
Where legends rise like gums with willow swords in their hands

Where the Test seeks the best out as the sun beats death down
Shatters laid plans and asks: what’s the fabric of a man?

*

Then they call him a convict and they call him a cheat
The irony stinks as the red-brick elite each preach

Stirring the words ‘the Spirit of Cricket’ through their speech
Those champagne lips leak as history simply repeats

Records blend in boards in the long room where gents and lords
Grab at his white cords stained by the red leather and lawns

Where what never dawns is what they can’t barely believe
That our power lies in these weathered old Baggy Greens

*

So, please – to those who get lent these battered crowns, beware!
As you cross seas and enter cold the cauldron of stares

Know the curse of this game is not that it bleeds you bare
But the great weight comes in knowing that we need you, there

Where heroes swing out of thin air or spin off pitch cracks
Where idols stand vital, taller as they lift bruised bats

Have you ever seen a man in a magic green cap?
These Baggy Greens are something that no one can take back

 

 

Patrik Klika Dempsey is a sports journalist, philosopher and poet who lives in Prague. He is the nephew of Almanac stalwart Kieran Dempsey.

 

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