The Arsenal Forever Poem by Mark Hamilton

(Barcelona 2-1 Arsenal
Champions League Final,17 May 2006)


The Arsenal forever, whatever the score,
I'll love them always - more and more!
The great dream didn't happen -
for Barcelona it did.
You love who you love,
breathe for, cry for it.
They were forced out of beauty,
fought like ten dogs instead:
pride surged round my veins,
galloped mad round my head.

Arsenal, my Arsenal, I grieve
for you now, wretched in defeat.
But you were great, you dazzled -
incomplete -
like the floodlights of Paris,
around and above:
you blazed against their blaze
like a deep restless love.