One Pound Notes

by Paul Tristram

A pocket full of them
and you felt loaded
even though you probably
only had £20 on you.
I remember being on Windsor Road
and walking past a taxi place
there were 3 of us
up to no good, as usual.
We spied an extremely inebriated man
half sitting, half laying
upon a chair in the waiting room.
He had around 30 one pound notes
in his lap, falling off his legs
and on the floor all around his feet.
His woman friend was on her knees
laughing and picking them all up
whilst he was singing loudly
“On the streets where you live!”
In we ran like psychic thieves
not a word had passed our mouths
we each grabbed a single
one pound note from his lap
and ran back out into the street.
‘In Like Flynn’ and fluid as always,
we didn’t need it
and it was only a pound note each,
we could have robbed him blind.
It was for the thrill, the rush of it
the excitement of living.
I miss one pound notes
the pound coins are not the same
although a handful of them
forcefully flung up close, in defence
did save me from being stabbed, one night.