TIMES BACK THEN

there on the cricket crease 

where we pooled our pennies

for the bottleshop & chippy
inside a long summer afternoon

& the warm dusk elation

& the nights secrets ours

smoking on the hill bench

smoking on the hill bench

the bell for last orders 

far & off & away

GULLIBLE DRUNKS

in 1989
there was this month or two

when each estuary pub

had a chancer joe

selling graffitied chunks
of the berlin wall 

out the boot

of their mk3 escort

or a borrowed volvo 760

& a small self conscious queue 

formed after last orders

in the car parks cold & dark 

espousing disclaimers & paying

in the heavy stink

of the seawall mud