A Bright Future

May it hold laughter
and music and hugs
and birthday parties
and joyous weddings

and trips to the seaside
and journeys
on  trams and trains
and aeroplanes.

May it hold funerals
we’re allowed to mourn at
and births
we will celebrate

and football matches
and literature festivals
and sitting on a bench
next to a stranger

discussing the weather
and how the sun
makes us all feel better
but, yes, we need some rain.

May the future see us in cinemas
eating popcorn
and rustling sweet wrappers
with someone saying ‘Shh!

I’m trying to watch this film.’

May it hold all of this and more.

As for me, at the moment
my own future requirements
are modest.  I’d settle
for an evening
 
at the pub
with a group of us
alluncomfortablysquashed
around one very small table.