Playing Shove ha'penny in the Loggerheads

   
Black table top,      
exalted on rickety legs      
sweet-scented-smoke,      
ginger ceilings and      
thick oak-varnish      
behind old church pews.      
A sort of comfort      
on Saturday night      
as pennies clink      
on sacred slate,      
the game more serious      
than Shrewsbury Town.      
The Sacristan bids      
good night at ten, Mass at seven.      
We stay on 'til closing time      
stagger home down Wyle Cop      
across  English Bridge and     
a dark oily river Severn.