Their numbers fell off
might it be a metaphor
for the state we are in
what with various brigands
having a falling out
(in the name of transparency)

a little game it is
with some hankering
still for the old days
glory days they say
forgetting

Their numbers fell off
30 grown men-persons
chasing after an oval ball
(no genteel game this)

Their numbers fell off
a primary school mate
(he of pensionable age too)
points this out to me
as he replays some footage

(he had found me a-wandering
and thought to lift me
to wherever I was going
not knowing I was going nowhere)

(I spend some time too peering
at the 60th birthday pictures
of a local personality)

Their numbers fell off
the team clad in white it was
and not the green and gold
(again some might opine
the old days the glory days
have passed)

did they use sweatshop labour
has an ancient skill been lost
taken over and overtaken
by technology and the like

aesthetics apart at least
they won the game