Paul Durcan - Sport lyrics

There were not many fields In which you had hopes for me But sport was one of them. On my twenty-first birthday I was selected to play For Grangegorman Mental Hospital In an away game Against Mullingar Mental Hospital. I was a patient In B Wing. You drove all the way down, Fifty miles, To Mullingar to stand On the sidelines and observe me. I was fearful I would let down Not only my team but you. It was Gaelic football. I was selected as goalkeeper. There were big country men On the Mullingar Mental Hospital team, Men with gapped teeth, red faces, Oily, frizzy hair, bushy eyebrows. Their full forward line Were over six foot tall Fifteen stone in weight. All three of them, I was informed, Cases of schizophrenia. There was a rumour That their centre-half forward Was an alcoholic solicitor Who, in a lounge bar misunderstanding, Had castrated his best friend But that he had no memory of it. He had meant well - it was said. His best friend had to emigrate To Nigeria. To my surprise, I did not flinch in the goals. I made three or four spectacular saves, Diving full stretch to turn A certain goal around the corner, Leaping high to tip another certain goal Over the bar for a point. It was my knowing That you were standing on the sideline That gave me the necessary motivation - That will to die That is as essential to sportsmen as to artists. More than anybody it was you I wanted to mesmerise, and after the game - Grangegorman Mental Hospital Having defeated Mullingar Mental Hospital By 14 Goals and 38 points to 3 goals and 10 points - Sniffing your approval, you shook hands with me. 'Well played, son'. I may not have been mesmeric But I had not been mediocre. In your eyes I had achieved something at last. On my twenty-first birthday I had played on a winning team The Grangegorman Mental Hospital team. Seldom if ever again in your eyes Was I to rise to these heights.