Another exercise from my creative writing class. This time the challenge was to create an acrostic poem; a poem where each line begins with a letter that spells out a word. As ever, my mind is never far away from Bradford City, so I immediately chose that as the basis for my acrostic poem. My intent was to pen a verse very different to the one that came out.

Writing this poem came quite easily.

Reading it to the class was very difficult. It is still difficult to resist even after 36 years.

Being present on that day in my past
Recognising the danger from that spark
And emerging from the stadium before the
Dreadful, destructive, destroying
Flames tore through wood, claiming
Ordinary fans just like me.
Reducing brother, father, son and wife to the fifty six
Dead.

Crying when the memory returns in the
Intervening years,
Thinking to myself why wasn’t it
You?

Gavin Dimmock. April 7 2017