Post-Lockdown Scenes From A Guernsey Beer Garden - J. Archer Avary


We’re back at the pub
at a table in the sun
drinking to welcome
the end of the lockdown
                          socially distanced
                          as per restrictions
                          examining faces from
                          two metres away
Over at the next table
with his back to us
a punk in a Kangol hat
sips on his Breda with
                          the aplomb of a man
                          who can pull off a thick
                          gauge double earring
                          worn without irony
Over in the corner
a Boddington’s drinker
in builder’s knee-pads and
paint-splattered trousers
                          he nurses his golden pint
                          props it up on his belly
                          like a man who doesn’t
                          want the moment to end
The atmosphere is merry
like the X-mas decorations
no one bothered to take down
when spring transformed
                          the island into a paradise
                          for flies and bees that
                          circle the table sometimes
                          landing in the beer foam

J. Archer Avary

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