Free List of the Lost by Morrissey Page B

who obviously knew too little, and with a language unknown, slopped into a mess of one who blathers for the sake of blathering. Look at these knotholes posing as sprinters (or is the appalling word ‘spinsters’ ?) and welcome, welcome to a new walled paradise. Our three rise and offer gentlemanly handshakes – friendly nods and murmurs of welcome. Dibbs beamed as fresh young life of wide smiles and bending-over-backwards confidence – a power hitter of herky-jerky motions. The boys drank him in as Dibbs laughed a deep and warm laugh whenever anything was said, be it amusing or not. “I run for beer!” he announced, desperate to crack into mounds of unbreakable ice, desperate to replace the irreplaceable. 
    Mr Rims was soapbox ready: “A virtuous emblem remains to be left on the age, and here is the man to save our spirits and eat fire, as we learn as professional athletes that we must take the bad days in the same spirit as the good. Half of your life has not been worth living if you let this opportunity go. Harri has slipped from us, and we’re all just a few yards away from the emotional edge, but I tell you that a light shines at the far end – the far end now being closer than it once was, of course – and it is acceptable to stand upright and to resume because it all remains to be done and you’ll evoke only eternal pity if you miss this particular bus.” At this stage, everyone had stopped listening to Mr Rims, but he continued regardless. “You already possess all that you need, and with Dibbs here you’ll find every answer in a return to the track. The track to where, you wonder? What’s at the end of that track? Well, pride and joy shall be there, and Harri would want you to continue at his urging, and if you don’t believe me then just suffer. I don’t want to feel that I’m running up against a brick wall just by pointing these damned things out. I could be at home pulverizing my wife at Scrabble, or scrabbling my pulverized wife, so don’t think I don’t have far more sophisticated things to do. Winning will tell the truth about all of you because you’ve worked hard for it and you’ve earned it and proof of everything is in your cannonball conduct, and, yes, inner resolve is one thing, but the outer reality counts just as much, and it’s not as if you have anything else to contribute to earthly wisdom. There is indeed a God who helps athletes win against opponents. Harri is gone, and you must accept that and go beyond it because the alternatives help neither yourselves nor those unfortunates around you. We are all fully dependent on unforeseen circumstances. Do your best to prove to yourself that the pain does not exist. Don’t be saddened by having felt Harri’s loss, but instead take a broader view and feel all the richer for having known him. He’s not gone anywhere that we aren’t heading ourselves. There’s nothing unique about his journey. Let the public see what they’ve invested in you for so long now, and Dibbs here – for all the silliness of his name – is not so easily intimidated on the track. I can’t speak for elsewhere, and I have no interest. Now, with relief I ask you to dry off and get dressed and then get to know this speed demon and I know he’ll restore your faith and ambition and you will be on track at 8 a.m. tomorrow eager to maintain your true selves and your reputation like no other spring and sprint college team known in this competition. Feelings must carry into deeds, otherwise what’s the point of those feelings in the first place … we don’t have feelings in order to do nothing with them. Sleep in your own beds tonight and I do assure you that you’ll awake with an increased level of pride knowing how Dibbs – for all the silliness of his name – has all your assets and asses covered … an area growing considerably in