City Ways by Robert Nisbet

He hadn’t thought to be living in London
in nineteen-sixty-six, still less
to be finding things so exciting.

In recent past, the crowd, the club, Young Farmers,
even, for Heaven’s sake, square dancing.
The brows, the cheeks of the young were ruddied
with bright cold weather and a brawny humour.

Now the sophisticates. He so enjoyed
the bouffancy of petticoat and expectation.
The beehive hairdo’s had a gloss
you wouldn’t get after a morning’s milking.

And last night, leaving the espresso bar,
he’d walked those two girls home.
Young Farmers style, for sure, was one to one,
that was traditional, but these were college girls,
clever girls (they’d been to lectures on Free Love),
so when they asked would he walk them home,
the three of them, it sounded pretty cool.

Both were pale, were pretty, both were flirty, both
seemed to be laughing at him just a little
as he tried to kiss the other one good night.

Robert Nisbet is a Welsh poet whose work has been published widely in Britain and the USA, including regular appearances in San Pedro River Review and Third Wednesday. He is a four-time Pushcart Prize nominee.