Patrick Street

The Bouzouki's a little bit loud, Tom

You'd think there'd be a formula
for knowing these people in the street
but there is not. Instruments
get flashed here as currency
for seats more than for fun.

And why so still in a place like this?
It is a room of unmoving beige but the notes
are effortless from the stage. Tunes are forming
an orderly queue through my own fingers
who think they know it already.

What I want more than anything is this music.
This music, and the people all with their arms
high for the sheer tune of it and everyone
tapping so the band have to play
an inkling louder, instead, and turn it up.