Was there anything you couldn’t do,

a second dad to me,

my father’s best friend

then

and now and for as long

as I breath

you are a hero,

decked out in Bournemouth

red and black, yet

we attended Southampton games together,

football of any colour,

our finest moment

off the field

was to sit together at Old Trafford,

your first visit, my first victory in Blue;

on the back of the Daily Mirror

when Monday came.

You stopped at our house on Manilla Road

when your lorry bypassed the need

for the tacograph to rest, it was days

I looked forward to,

as my Godfather I have loved you,

as a friend I could call upon

when I was younger,

as the father of my oldest friend in the world

I have admired you,

now on this day

I wish I could tell you face

to face, you have been a dad to me,

like my own, steadfast, full of courage,

my father means the world to me,

but you do too.

 

 

Ian D. Hall 2017