Move On. Poem by Terry Collett

Move on Mulligan would say
Move on don’t look back and
Yet he’d be off on one of his
Journeys into his past talking
About the good old days about
Him and O’Connor and the things
They got up to and how they were
The boys to be seen with and how
They’d be all over the place with
The drink and all and the girls were
Hanging on to their arms and you’d
Say and what kind of girls were they
To be hanging onto your arms and
He’d laugh and slap his knee and give
You the look he gave when he knew
He’d said something he ought not to
But there you are he’d say men are
Men and so it will ever more be so but
For you it was always are the kids fed
Are they clothed are they happy in their
Shallow squalor but Mulligan saw no
Further than his nose heard nothing that
Wasn’t clinking with glass and drink oh
Men my girls are they worth it you’d say
Putting the kids to bed makes you think.