Let Rip: The Beautiful Game
From the live euphoria of football, to homosexual desire and the macho body in action, Lee Campbell explores “Balls and sports, men in shorts. Football with Dad both happy and sad. Dad watching one way, me quite the other”. The pitch is a patchwork of memory. The Beautiful Game is beginning. Roll up and take your seats.
Discover the same other
whilst under the cover
Creeping seeping peeping
covert operations
my teenage fascinations
awkward altercations
with non queer populations
Sensations that taught me
if ever they caught me
I got very clever very clever at seeing without being seen
Saturday afternoon football with my Dad in the Nineties
The beautiful game – watching in the stadium, listening in the car on the radio
Chelsea v Arsenal
Dad watched the match
I watched the players
Dad remembers the midfielder’s tackle
I remember the midfielder’s tackle
Dad remembers the midfielder being shown the red card
I remember the midfielder’s red jockstrap showing
Dad remembers listening to hear who
will next play against Chelsea
I remember listening to imagine the midfielder
Dad remembers telling me that as I am into football I might like rugby
I remember agreeing
Me as a teen, clever at not being seen
Fancying men
Being called ‘one of them’
Balls and sports
Men in shorts
Football with Dad, both happy and sad
Dad watching one way, me quite the other
Nothing beats a good tackle seen undercover
Lee Campbell’s experimental performance poetry films have been selected for many international film festivals since 2019 including WICKED QUEER 2021, Boston, USA, Splice Film Festival 2021, Brooklyn, USA, Darkroom Festival, London and REEL Poetry Film Festival, Houston, USA, 2022.