Power to the People
Like the powdered chocolate on my cappuccino
and the lightest rain on the street outside,
that conversation sprinkled itself
over several tables.
She, the younger one, looked happier now,
as she, the older one, discoursed.
Laura’s that sort of boss (she said), she’s a crabby sod,
but ten years back, when my friend was in the shit,
they got at Laura, the girls in the workroom,
nudge here, cough there,
got her thinking, know what I mean,
then somebody came out with it,
told Laura to hump off.
You tell your friend about that.
Don’t matter if she came through the comp
in the seventh set or what, and maybe Laura has got
the fucking MBE,
but there’s no fucker should talk to your friend like that.
Get the girls in the workroom on it.
Nudge here, hint there. Soon fix Laura.
You tell your friend.
As I left, I saw a sign above the door,
We hope you’re leaving this coffee shop refreshed,
and I thought Yesss!,
breasting the sweetest drizzle
with a skip and a snappy sidestep
around a big brown wheelie-bin outside.
Robert Nisbet has published 100 short stories, one of which will reappear in a forthcoming Library of Wales anthology of the best Welsh short fiction of the 20th century. Some of his 100 poems appear in his chapbook, Merlin’s Lane (Prolebooks, 2011).