Friday Night Ritual In Dublin Poem by Roger Hudson

Weekly ritual starts
Wife to hairdresser
Friday hairdo
Chats under dryer
Perm or blue rinse
To suit her image of herself
As befits age and status
As mother or grandmother
As does the dress she puts on
That evening
After bath or shower
Make-up, perfume

Having fed husband
Home from work sober tonight
For weekly ritual
Chased from telly slouch
To don weekend suit and tie

Together they walk
To favoured pub
Upstairs to Lounge
Not the Bar he frequents on other nights
Tonight respectability rules
Casual greeting to other couples,
Friends, neighbours already there,

His pint of Guinness
Her gin or vodka with mixer of choice
They sit then
Not together
But women with women
Men with men
Neat dress and hairdo with neat dress and hairdo
Suit and tie with suit and tie
Lookalike matrons comfy in their weekend finery
Reluctant men,
Uncomfortable in soon to be loosened ties
Rapidly discarded jackets
Females to gossip of other neighbours,
Their own health and family problems
Males to chat of football and hurling
Jest at rivalries of rival teams supported
In Ireland and Britain
Of Celtic and Liverpool
Dublin and Kerry
Round of drinks succeeds round of drinks
In social occasion of the week
Only social occasion of the week
When husband and wife are together
But not together
Meeting friends and neighbours

Closing time
Call for last orders
Polite fiction
As bar staff draw curtains
Close window shutters
Lock outside doors
Continue serving
Till whatever habitual time is reached
Or enough couples have dribbled out and home
1am,2am
Final bit of craic, laugh, argument
On pavement outside
And home together
He silent
As she
Out of earshot of friends
Reports gossip she has gleaned
He silent
Ears closed
Concentrating on walking
Staying steady and upright
Keeping up Friday night respectability
Until through their own front door.