POEM: 'The Closest Thing To Prayer'

THE CLOSEST THING

TO PRAYER…/

SATURDAY

NIGHT & SUNDAY MORNING

some nights disgourged from dancehalls and
street-corner drifting from dockside pubs
we take motor metallic-screaming bikes down
roads crystal-clear with amber lighting,
then overlooking the moon-crazy estuary
spidered with shipyard cranes and derricks,
past Salt End jetties and chemical plants
to the all-night café where “Twist & Shout”
and “She Loves You” strike the air dumb,
vibrating the huge Wurlitzer jukebox and
pinball tables lit up like neon hoardings

drink acrid expresso coffee in Duralex cups
to kill alcohol swirling around the brain,
watching Honda and BSA in formation beneath
the arc of street-light. Talking trash

then drunk and chasing midnight girls
we pause to see the distant lights of
trawlers throb across the estuary stillness,
off for Iceland or Baltic fishing-grounds

and we pause
for a moment
to watch



Published in:
‘SLOW DANCER no.7’ (UK - December 1980)
‘GREEDY PIGS no.2’ (UK – October 1996)
‘CHANTICLEER MAGAZINE ISSUE 16 (1960’s Theme Issue)’ (UK – March 2007)
and in the anthology:
‘THINGS WE SAID TODAY: POEMS ABOUT THE BEATLES’
edit: Phil Bowen (Stride Publications) (UK – September 1995)