Hillsborough - Justice for the 96

For one day the Steel City is Merseyside

No blots on the horizon show trouble
The Red machine is in full swing
All conquering on the road to the double

Through the peak district to Sheffield
Fans savour “God’s own County”
Famed Woodhead and Snake passes
Amongst the finest of all in Blighty

On the banks of the River Don
To Hillsborough they rejoice and head
Built nine decades prior to that year
And soon to be a shrine to the dead

Red Battalion of 13 in port
Grobelaar, Ablett, Nicol, Staunton
Beardsley, Aldridge, Burrows, Whelan
Barnes, Houghton, McMahon, Rush, Hansen

At 2.55 there are shrieks of delight
Witness all too customary a scene
Led out by Ray Lewis – the Hillsborough ref
King Kenny’s champs take to the green

3:00pm and further gladness
Semi final kicks off with a flourish
Heaving Leppings Lane and the Spion Kop
Human pen where many will perish

No stewards where it mattered
As ticketed Reds wielded their gold
With the carnival very much in full flow
Death’s shrill voice, calls out cold

A moral free Police Chief on call
“Deceitful” Duckenfield the security host
Ham-fisted Superintendent Murray
Responsible for the control post

“Dishonest” Duckenfield the rookie
Held sway over blameless fates
Yet still gave that fateful order:
Instructing; "Open the gates"

Despite a lucid view of the Leppings pen
There’s gross duty evasion
That “deceitful, dishonest” match commander
Mistook all for a pitch invasion

In streamed a flurry of Reds
Adding to the burgeoning number
Intensity, panic, and horror set in
The Police obstinate in their slumber

Asphyxiation took hold and ribs shattered
“Please Bruce (Grobelaar), help us!” they exclaim
As Beardsley struck the bar
Ray Lewis whistled the end of the game

That whistle set in motion a nightmare
All beheld an abominable crush
The carnival fizzled out with a whimper
Death mingled with the huge onrush

Paramedic Tony Evans blocked entry
“They’re fighting”, the Police scowled
Ad hoardings became makeshift stretchers
“Shan’t abandon the dead”someone growled

Death’s stench, permeated in abundance
Owl’s gym resembling an ER ward
Powerful and all encompassing
Lone, grief stricken voices roared

Trevor Hicks and his teenage daughters
In memory evergreen
Sarah and Victoria captured forever in time
Forever 19 and 15

For Jon Paul, Stevie G’s cousin
3:06 the dead whistle blown
Kevin Williams amongst the deceased
And the rest will always be known

94 confirmed dead on the day
Football watched with bated breath
95 the figure four days later
Wee Lee Nicol succumbed to death

Life switched off four years later
Number 96, Anthony Bland
“Matter of life and death” a world away
It’s still “Justice”, the families demand

26 years and still no justice
Resolve is now rock iron mould
Malicious falsehoods add fuel to the fire
But justice is best served cold

Never forget the screams
The denials, the lies, the sorrow
You’ll never walk alone
Not yesterday, today or tomorrow.

For the victims and their families #JFT96

Number7
© Emdad Rahman