Tapas Bar, Camden


“Do you mind if I stay ‘til the rain stops?”
One woman comes in with her left arm already out of her coat.
Two girls sit by the door. They talk about sex,
waiting for a break in the clouds. When it comes,
one leaves on a BMX, the other on a skateboard.
The face of a waitress is reflected in the doorpane. The rain
smears it.
Schoolgirls drink diet coke, and watch the weather. They complain
that smoking outside is a shit when
it’s wet. They shuffle
phones and lipgloss in punk handbags.
Terracotta pitchers with necks like sleeves
flaring on hooks above the bar.
A Spanish woman with a tattoo appears from the kitchen,
ready to make bloody sangria flow. But
this is England; we close early in April.



* Kerry Featherstone is lecturer in creative writing at Loughborough University. He writes poems and songs in French as well as English. www.myspace.com/kerryorange