From a great height
You began to fall
A twirling flight
With no recall
Future soccer star
A goal machine
With raking dribbles
Talent unreal.
One by one
Defenders fall
To the drop shoulder
Two footed roll
Applause from touchline
Lined with scouts
Hes something special
The voices shout.
Slowly
Sometimes unseen
This talent wavered
From what it had been
Missed training sessions
The glassy eyes
The begining
Of a slow decline.
No more soccer
Just more drugs
Seventeen years old
He hit the dust
Crime and homelessness
On to jail
But those who saw him
Cannot but fail.
To remember the talent
The golden times
What could have been
Now draped in lies
In a prison cell
To rot away
Fantastic goals
In memory lay.