Poem No. 141

POEM TITLE Blackness on Sea

POEM Blackness on Sea

I was drinking down at The Lobster Pot

I was handsome young and free

when all of a sudden I lost the plot.

Fiona smiled at me.

A shining light. I crossed the floor,

I talked to her…somehow.

I’d never felt this way before.

Was she my future now?

From the back of the bar a scornful laugh.

“Hey kid, run off and play.

She needs a bull, not a lovesick calf.”

I shook my head. “No way.”

“I’ll fight you, son, for that first kiss.”

McGregor - six foot three.

She stood, “I’ve not got time for this.”

“I’ll win,“ I said. “You’ll see.”

They placed their bets, they cleared a space

for the contest to begin.

It haunts me still, his grizzled face;

that cocksure bully’s grin.

His massive frame, his iron fist,

he surely looked the part

but he had no way to resist

the force within my heart.

She was for me, no ifs, no buts,

there was no trace of doubt.

A couple of well-timed uppercuts

and I’d knocked McGregor out.

They bought me drinks, they clapped and cheered,

those sad deluded men.

I knew Fiona’d disappeared,

would not come back again.

The dreams I’d had, the home, the wife

were lost beyond recall;

I’d sacrificed the love of my life

for a brainless bar-room brawl.

So now I walk the shore at night

no longer young and free;

my future’s gone, no shining light -

it’s all blackness on sea.