"Train of Thought"

The 'right-on hipster' shirt
Me. Sat here
In my Pink and Blue
Minding my own business.
Outside boarding the train
Worn, weary faced
Millwall fan
His own colours
On his back
Can of Grolsch 
In his hand.
How far apart 
Are our lives?
What is his back story
And what is mine?
We shall never know as...
He leaves at Lewisham.

As if to highlight
The modern 21st Century
Game of footie
A woman also
Minds the gap
With a West Ham shirt
On her back.
Think about that
For a moment...
A woman
In West Ham attire
Brazenly flaunting
Claret and blue
In the heart of
MY South East London.
But I am now all embracing.
Times change.
All are welcome 
In the all-are-welcome
Sanitised world
That we now watch
Our teams in.
Nowhere more so
Than Champion Hill
Even if...
We've been transplanted
To the wilds of Mitcham.

Part of me 
Will never change.
Which is why I don't
Bat an eyelid
At West Ham fans
Wearing their colours
Where they've no right to.
Invading and contaminating
Our Pavements!
Which is why
Under my skin
Deep in my heart
And in that grumpy
"It was better in the old days" mode
I am screaming inside
"Fack off back over the water
You east Lunnon schlaaag!"
Wearing my silent poker face
As she toddles off
Toward the D.L.R.

Dulwich Poet 1st September 2018

(Going to a Dulwich Hamlet home game, on the train into London Bridge, I saw someone in a Millwall shirt, and someone else in a West Ham United shirt. Basically...I am an old south London dinosaur...)