Time Gentlemen Please Poem by John Gaskin

It occurred to me
One Saturday night
In the bar
After work
Beers to dissolve
The stress
Of a busy day
Banter
With my co-workers
Bonding
As a unit
Us
Against them
Us
Against the world
And
Putting it all to rights
Then
I found myself
Sitting
Smoking
Amid flashing VLT’s
And wall to wall sports
With
Ticker tape text
Banal
Info-steaming
Of
Facts and figures
Force fed
To the eyes
And mindless
They’d
Left me
At our table
With its
Abandoned chairs
Bits of nibbles
Over flowing ashtrays
For me
A veritable fox hole
Made up of
Glass and bottle ramparts
Left me only
Alone
With cheery farewells
And the bill
It occurred to me
How young they were
As they energised themselves
For a Saturday night out
And I realised
How much older was I
Finishing my beer
Putting out my cigarette
Mustering
The spirit
To pay the bill
Tip the young waitress
Far too much
But
Long dark hair
Short kilt
Swirling about tanned legs
And
A plunging tight top
Makes for
Happy old men
Equals
Young girls with big tips
Then
I will head home
For my
Saturday night out
Cold
Too tired to keep eyes open
For banal
Info-steaming
Force fed to me
On my TV at home
Breaking news
Breaking wind
It occurred to me
What they had said was
I had
Had my time
This time
Was theirs
Ah but
I thought
Getting to my feet
I still
Have not had
The time of my life
Let’s hope
It arrives
Before last orders