No broken door

No broken door

Nor the acrid stink

Of disinfectant

Will deter me

Blood on the floor

A shatter of glass

Crunching like hoarfrost in winter

A reminder of a night to forget

For somebody

Police tape

Marshals the customers

Into a single file

The ambulance driver

Loves a red light district

And spends his time

Waiting for the monitor

To beep beep beep

A numbing monologue.

The coffee machine

Grumbles and rumbles

The cafe is cosmopolitan

The owners Neapolitan

Nothing deters them

Neither war nor famine

Through all kinds

Of weather

Serving drunks

And rozzers alike.

There were a few witnesses

To the altercation

But nothing much was said

Before sitting down

I never do a takeaway

They taste of cardboard

But the uniforms

Were choking for a hot tip

So I drank a cup

And soaked it up.