Avignon ~ A Leafy Restaurant, London 2009
A Leafy Restaurant
London
I
It’s been a good day.
Let’s celebrate,
Break the Cask
and sip Champagne.
Lets toast our friendship,
our union,
our contractual agreement.
No not this evening.
We’re here for more
intimate celebration.
Yes. Our marriage.
But you make it sound
like a pre-nuptial agreement!
Sorry. Habit.
I’m a lawyer remember.
Well don’t bring that to bed!
And you two? (smiling)
Oh, we’re toasting business.
And yourselves? (nodding)
What us?
Oh gosh.
We’re just Avignon,
the pure joy of champagne.
I guess we can say it’s friendship too.
Well it all sounds good.
A chink of glasses and feeling good.
The waiter courteous
standing by;
another cask bursts.
He has seen it all
a thousand times before.
II
A young waitress, Caroline,
brings the second cask respectfully
to the table,
her first night on front of house.
The Peer views her with disdain . . .
Not there you stupid girl!
basking now in the titters and giggles
that his frends reward ‘my lord’.
Oh, foolish, foolish, ignorant little man!
III
A table away
an uncle looks on . . .
quietly contemplates,
dabs his lips against the wine
and whispers across the tiny divide.
‘My Lord’’ you may be, sir,
but you do not address my Niece
in such a way.
Tomorrow, we will examine your record,
trade you off,
and this time next week
you will sit alone,
another fallen FTSE idol,
with the waiter and your title
to keep you company.
25 July 2023
All Rights Reserved
© 2023 Kenneth Thomas Webb
Liverpool
2009
Author Note
Composed in a moment of irritation when I learned how my niece had been addressed by an arrogant little man one evening in a London restaurant in 2009.
Ken Webb is a writer and proofreader. His website, kennwebb.com, showcases his work as a writer, blogger and podcaster, resting on his successive careers as a police officer, progressing to a junior lawyer in succession and trusts as a Fellow of the Institute of Legal Executives, a retired officer with the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, and latterly, for three years, the owner and editor of two lifestyle magazines in Liverpool.
He also just handed over a successful two year chairmanship in Gloucestershire with Cheltenham Regency Probus.
Pandemic aside, he spends his time equally between his city, Liverpool, and the county of his birth, Gloucestershire.
In this fast-paced present age, proof-reading is essential. And this skill also occasionally leads to copy-editing writers’ manuscripts for submission to publishers and also student and post graduate dissertations.
