I am a soccer fan,

I travel everywhere the battle line is drawn.

Even though I am a small and insignificant guy

With regard to wealth, I have little to go by.

I am a football fan – aficionado,

Without my slavish adulation,

The heroes on the field have little to do.

They have to have people like me,

If they are to spinneret and create webs of money.

There are two occasions I look for,

I live for the day the torment is played,

And days before the game is underway.

Days after the game is played.

Other than the contest, I

Have little or nothing else to say.

Past the mayhem -

During the actual contest time,

And it does not really matter,

Whether the contest is won or lost;

The adversary’s reticulate goal posts

Are torn apart or lambasted -

I keep shouting the team I support is invincible,

That from the crown seat it cannot be ousted.

Being adult but an obstreperous scoundrel,

I hurl vitriol to the fan opposite.

I call them names,

And invite them for a fight.

And if that fails,

I go rampaging through the streets,

Looking for ethnic minorities to beat,

All these I have done, dressed up,

In mid-field combat uniform,

Even though, for the life of me,

I have never had put my foot on a damn ball.

Yet I go round the corner, behind a wall,

Often intoxicated with alcohol,

Looking for wolves, that I am, dressed in sheep’s wool,

And we begin to talk about the football.

Every moment of the tournament is re-lived,

Every step, each skill and ploys the our boys deployed,

To clinch the winning gaol

Is vividly analysed.

However, there are moments,

When I sit back at home and reflect,

How stupid I am,

To devote my life to a game,

Which I do not even have the basic talent to perform.

But pardon me, there are points to reckon,

For if you take away football,

The whole edifice of my life with it will be gone,

I have nothing else to hold on.

Besides, experience tells me,

Marriage is a none starter,

I cannot stand a nagging woman,

Who would want me to stay locked in house alone.

The work place relations are nowadays sour,

Everyone is on everyone’s nerve.

The wider community is one big hell.

It is only through football,

I meet those with whom I thrive so well.

Furthermore, be ware, I am not the only fool,

Who wastes his life in search of such a trivial pursuit,

That often leads nowhere but a quagmire,

There are others,

Who are fans of a greater evil - war.

Copyright HaileSelassie Girmay

Draft 28/4/99