"Not So Spartan"

Sitting in a local boozer
This is where I should belong
Over fifteen years sober
Hope that doesn't sound wrong.
The Blythe Hill Tavern
It's won awards you know
The Catford pub with a Forest Hill postcode
It's the place to go.
A tidy little boozer
I can feel the warmth and it's clean
Not sure I would have appreciated that
When I was an 'apprentice pisshead' teen.
I'm here to read poetry
A lot on the Open Mic
undoubtedly I'll be back again
This is a venue I like.
Not shoved upstairs
A dingy room above a pub
We're right in the centre
Taking over a bar at the hub.
There's 'ordinary' punters here
Sitting round the side
Quietly taking in words heard
Or in the far corner to hide.
Can't see any fancy coffees
Or posh gastro dining list
People they just come here
To get merry and a bit pissed.
Clearly an Irish run local
And no worse for that
Genuinely homely
Not filled with 'Plastic Paddy' tat.
A bit of 'diddly-dah' fiddling
Not intrusive but a lovely sound
I'm sure to come back again
One of the most relaxed venues I've found.
So if you're ever going past
And see me popping in for a drink
I've not fallen off the waggon
It's not what you think.
I'm just doing poetry in a traditional boozer
21st Century in an old fashioned way
If all venues were like this
I'd read every fucking day!

Dulwich Poet 23rd November 2017

(I went to a poetry Open Mic, that was in a put called the Blythe Hill Tavern, and it was in the pub itself, which was a really nice little local boozer)