Saturday November 8th 2014 (7.59pm)

Probably not much is going on
tonight, in room after room.
I chose not to zoom in any closer.

I expect music’s playing in some
but the TV will be on in most. There’s
Strictly. Dr Who. Repeats of Sherlock

on BBC Four later. The X Factor, too,
will attract more than its fair
share of viewers. I wonder if

anyone’s sitting alone, sipping
a glass of whiskey, wine, vodka
and lime, reading a book, an actual

book? They might be planning
to put the book down, any minute now,
and watch The Great War: an elegy

- a Culture Show Special featuring seven
new poems by Simon Armitage.
Or record it and save it for tomorrow.