The Four in Hand

By Deborah Morgan

Location: The Four In Hand, Palatine Road, West Didsbury

Saturdays, it’s him. Washed and combed
like nothing happened, walks in the pub,
Jesus Christ it meant nothing. He rubs
out promises made in marriage. I phoned …
She answered, you, making jokes stoned,
a cherry red thrill on your arm at the club.
Yeah, too good an opportunity to pass up.
I stare at his neck, its slack lazy fold.

He’s a man with words alright.
The match starts. I pull his ale.
Behind him his wife is listening.
He moves towards the box into the light,
sees her stare, fully loaded like a sharpened nail.
In flashes, the bandit pays out the jackpot – kerching.

Deborah Morgan is an MA student at Liverpool University. She got this idea after seeing a couple fight over a third woman last Valentine’s night. It wasn’t pretty in the end.