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Sport 42: 2014

White Hart Lane

page 139

White Hart Lane

That Katherine Mansfield liked
‘the Tottenham-Hotspurs’ makes perfect sense.
She was, after all, a modern, progressive girl
much interested in tactical intricacies.
On the terraces, her small body pushes into mine.
We share a sharp intake of breath
as the ball skitters over the crossbar.
Spurs’ defenders, she tells me, are quick,
but not always able to foresee developing attacks,
making them vulnerable to salvos from the diagonal.
Her hair is damp with rain and she is shivering,
but at the next exquisite Spurs’ exchange
she turns and kisses my cheek, her lips
deadly beneath the fizzing floodlights.