Man in a Burger Bar

Man in a Burger Bar

Man in a Burger Bar: Pale and thin
already in love with the dark girl
shovelling fries, guides his tray to
a table viewing the world outside.
Free as the fish that roam the seas,
can come and go wherever he please,
but lives his life inside a sigh
watching the screen behind his eye.

Forsakes the wimp in the grim brick
school, meekly complying with bullies'
rule, to watch young mothers usher
brats towards their dose of soothing
fats; transfers them to his morning
bed, all cuddled-up soft beneath the
spread. But now, inside his cinema head,
a wide eyed youth and anxious lass
have sown a seed that means impasse...

Shop-tired girls drift off the streets,
move chattering by a man who eats.
He yearns for solace, their touch, their
kiss, but images rise to blur the bliss –
a wife's tongue lashing through the
day as a baby shrieks her life away...

Two teenage dreams come sit nearby.
The blond one smiles and takes his eye.
He nods and winks but wants her friend...
Camera tracks – star in the pub
playing the clown for the rowdy mob.
He blinks it away, will it never end?

But the shadows fight back. A
metallic crunch in a drunken fog, a
distorted face and bitter eyes; the bonnet
bent, night air rent by a woman's cries –
the body slumped like a refuse bag...

The sensual blond fades back in view,
wreathing a straw with fulsome lips.
He wants to stay but is clawed away
to complete the film in a dingy cell
amid rattle and slam and echoing yell.

He leaps to his feet, must make a dash,
scrapes his life in the bin along with the trash
then goes with his show to the lonely street.