Stephen Bett

John King, The Football Factory

Tottenham away is a cracker . . . We're the Chelsea boys . . . Harris nutting a big cunt between the eyes . . . and a few of the blokes start kicking him in the head and gut, driving him under a parked car . . . and I'm in there feeling the sheer joy of kicking a deserving bastard in the bollocks, head, gut, anywhere . . . The rush is there and my body tingles . . . It's better than shafting a bird. Better than speeding . . . This is what life's all about. Spurs away. Love it.

No angel jingle herein fact who took
the who out of hooligan?

& no bum rush, home or away
they’d parked the car

(said Stee'va, eeze only a fren'lie, don'
worr'ie my fren' yust a fuckin fren'lie)1

Da' boys _have seen the present and know_
_it does not work_2(urp)

. . . effing and blinding throughout3

Bollocks’ own, life’s all about bird’s eye view:
Nothing deserved to live!

Contains bottle Chelski nuts4sheer joy
shafted & spurred away

That driver’s some conniver,
all sped up on a class action cracker

Footnotes

1.Yrs truly, So Got Schooled: In the Tower, On the Field (three memoirs), p. 10.

2.Hugh MacDonald, Glasgow Herald, review of The Football Factory: “[A] group of Londoners who have seen the present.”

3.Review in Blah Blah Blah: “The most savagely authentic account of football hooliganism ever seen. The book’s veins pulse with testosterone and bellicose rage, effing and blinding throughout the warzone of macho culture.”

4.AKA Chel$ki, Chel’scum, etc.; “to bottle” is to choke under pressure.

About the Author

Stephen Bett is a widely and internationally published Canadian poet with 26 books in print (from BlazeVOX, Chax, Spuyten Duyvil, & others). His personal papers are archived in the Contemporary Literature Collection at Simon Fraser University. Find him online at StephenBett.com.