SPANISH CAFE OBSERVANCES:

Young girls smoke their coffees & drink their fags. Old hens dressed in a profusion of colours, profusion of heels, reds & greys, blues & greys, pinks & greys, always grey. Little girls wreathed in toothless grins & dirty ribbons, picking their noses, & compare their findings & their ribbons. A little boy, dripping socks & dripping snot, pushes his jammy-car, round & round the back of his cafe chair, sticky, snotty, cafe chair. The executive with the pin-striped face sips his pin-striped coffee sadly. The Spanish housewife pretends to be English, drinking her English tea bag, with finger cocked, dipping up & down, down & up, her English tea bag goes, into the cup of boiled condensed milk. Oh to be English, oh to be posh; what...Ole, Ole. The little boy in irons wins a million on the fruit machine, lucky kid, poor kid. The old peasant broods beneath his black beret, his un-ironed face lost, lost amidst the smoke of his better days, lost in his glass of wine. Non-stop giggles from young girls, be-jeaned, bedraggled, bemused & bedazzled, so young, so free, glad it´s not me, sad it´s not me. Lads so daring, yesterday pushing jammy-cars, today, sipping their dear beer. "Gran,in your corner, you have a crumb on your chin, & cream up your nose, & what about the drip? You don't notice? As long as you are happy: Oh well!" As long as you are all happy in yourselves, I am OK in my coke.