"Through The window"

Leaning on the wall
T-shirt weather  now
Almost midnight
But not what you'd call
A balmy summer evening.
I see the three of you
Through the window of my bus home.
One being held up by the window ledge.
The next swaying,
Cigarette cupped in hand
And you holding court
Arm animated
Pint sploshing
Without spilling a drop.
I have no doubt you are
The perfect pub philosopher
While I have some thoughts
Of my own.
Make that a flashback
To my old Friday nights.
When I was younger
I was drunk down
The Old Kent Road
With a friendly tear up
For a late one.
Then through my twenties
Into my thirties
It was just the drink
Far too drunk to even think
How many people
I bashed-just with
My nasty drunken tongue.
Time after time after time
I could see myself
Just like 'The Swan' I am seeing
At the West Wickham traffic lights
Except I was an obnoxious ugly duckling
Being drunk most nights.
But I thought I was normal
How wrong I was.
Not that I'm ashamed.
The most important thing is
I'm not like that today.
Life's not perfect
But I'm not propped up by pubs.
That's it
Nothing else to say.
Sometimes actions do
Speak louder than words.

Dulwich Poet 19th April 2013

(On the way home last night, from a wedding reception, my bus stopped at a junction, at the lights, outside a pub. Three blokes were standing outside, clearly a bit drunk. It got me thinking about my drinking, I'm now nearly eleven years sober)