At His Wake
by Michael Ashley

you muffled it
not so much a laugh
more a murmur
best you could muster
given the setting-
an old man’s pub
The Oak [decayed]
where every seat
has a name
a face
neither written or etched
unspoken
but known
by every patron

and at the bar end
beside the widow
red-eyed
agitated in her clothes
an empty seat
a tankard full of warming ale
a cold flat cap
lies still.

I survey the room
the gentle funeral hum
weighing up
how appropriate
another joke would be.

Michael Ashley, is a 30 year old from the county of West Yorkshire in the United Kingdom, most of the time he is either working the 9 ‘til 5 or walking his dogs, but in between this [and the rest of the menial tasks that come along with life] he writes a little poetry.