Even with the noise of a pub

Even with the noise of a pub

Full of working people

Clamouring for drinks

Throwing off the travails of the week

Tearing open brown paper envelopes

Full of old money

A shower of gold coins

And crisp notes

Fluttering down, onto the bar

Like confetti

A last hurrah, for the greenback

Before digitisation

Changed the nature of the game,

I heard the music in you.

We were protected from the hubbub

Bent in conversation

Hands touching across the table

Knees touching beneath it

Happy to be there

In the company of strangers

All with their own complicated stories

Competing for attention

Some more deserving than others

The louder the voice

The less said

Politics and religion

Hung on a rack by the door

Democracy has a way of overlooking

The veneer of difference

We wear on the outside.

The bar was full of big hearts and bonhomie

A warm glow of wealth and humanity

For the price of a pint

Blue smoke rose higher

Choking the life out of a spider

Creating a crisscross of filaments between

The overhead lights

A yellowed ceiling barely visible in the fug

Not that we noticed

Foreheads touching

Fingers interlocked

Barely constrained

Ready to depart

At the end of the song

Playing on the jukebox

In the corner.

I’ve got the music in me

Even now

Old songs, new songs

Help me to remember

Those happy hours

As unchained melodies

Rattle the cage

Containing my days.