Another baby

The barmaid's sister in law is in labour.

She keeps getting phonecalls from the corridors

of the late night maternity ward

where a cleaner mops and her brother

full on a vending machine dinner

phones with updates to his sister the barmaid

who updates all the people asking any news any news?

with a shake of the head. 'Nothing yet'

and on the tables we all wait for news

none of us talk about the things we'd planned to talk about.

We come here so often and so often

life doesn't feel special. But tonight we'll wait and wait.

Sometimes it feels wrong to have normal conversations.