Don’t Know Why
Whatever the truth, a truce was spoken about,
Hardly sanctioned by officers, reportedly
But popular belief has committed the incident to folklore:
The football match too…
Craters, obstacles and mounds must have suited the English game:
Hoisting, or lifting the ball forwards by howitzer-booted defenders,
Slugging the missile, thus imitating normal trench warfare,
In battlefield’s muddied glue.
The Germans suffered a narrow defeat, it was reported,
Although propaganda, tobacco, alcohol and refereeing decisions
May have taken their tolls, as well as the conflict’s detritus and gore:
Sadly they usually do…
I went to survey the scene of this monumental match
On a ragged field, now a cultivated patch,
Beneath the gaze of a distant spire, which lurched in mist
But tempted, I was unable to resist
The clutch of memorial footballs, damp among wreaths for the dead
And I flicked one onto my instep, with a thrilling empathy in my head…
And I played too…
Pete Ray
Visiting the site of the legendary Christmas Day soccer game during the First World War...
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