surely, shirley

The Sky is Alight

The sky is alight

and now is the time

to move to the town

to move down to the night.

This is the scene:

the pubs will be filled

with the drinkers and dregs

of the words that they mean.

The girl mops up spills

and collect empty whispers

and stack up the glasses

of those who would miss her.

Smokes spools from the thrill

that the night may yet hold,

and the safety of memory

is too cheaply sold.

And if all is then killed

by the hungry brigade

of those who have love; their

military will,

then weeping and shamed

we will crawl back into

the day’s homely shade

the home’s curtained view.