Ghosts at the World Cup 2006
A memory of 1988

The platform at Potsdamerplatz,
like the one at Wembley
for the man in the white suit
to conduct Abide with Me,
the wooden stage on which we climbed
to watch the Ostpo perform
repairs to walls within the tracks
(the nearer one the goal)
in no man's land whose keepers
play theoretical football on the grass,
an international match
where both sides play at home
but only visitors scrawl messages.
In front of us, incongruously,
a sporting culture clash:
'Geoff Boycott we love you'.