Deborah Tyler-Bennett
Time At The Patrick Hamilton
It never changes. Sign reads OPEN both ways,
hostelries surrounding Hangover Square
veered into by moth-balled actors, colonels,
salesmen, occasional passers-by
(primed to swallow lines
from sherry-eyed barmaids, love-
heart lips Cherry Brandy).
Pubs, snugs, bars. Loungers
mugs, thugs, stars, scroungers.
Cast-list predictable, some bloke
slinks down, no one rescues him,
bulk stranded between brogues
and kitten-heels.
Joker half-inches his trilby,
squeezes it on, grimacing.
Whisky, Gin, and Lemon-Bitters:
Couple, almost dancing.
Slapped, he grabs her wrist,
she challenges pacifying barmen:
`What's eating you? We're not pissed.'
Sobriety, a point of view.
Wine bar. Chill Out. Hotel. Club.
Fine Time Experts. Snacks in tubs.
Couple chucked-out, not before
her glass's smashed into a tray of ice,
they'll discover mirrored paradise
a few doors down.
It never changes.
Just the pin-ups' hair, their cocktail choice,
just the Landlord's face, but not the lies:
`Do hurry back.' Echoing pubs, snugs, lounges
on multiplying streets under blurred skies.
Page(s) 2
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The