The dangers of growing up too soon

On Friday night you could catch sight of the boys,
Laughing, crowing and ruffling their hair.
Bragging to the beat of drink after drink
Until each cocky embrace becomes a slur.
Those with a wish will circle and dance
To their freedom as their love becomes vocal.

But you will not see the earlier ritual. Less vocal
But equal in desire. In secret corners these boys
Will prepare, conducting some bathroom mirror dance
Of success. As they work their tattered over-shaped hair
Into smooth, stylish, identifiable waves, a slur
Of wax hits the mirror. It lies there, derelict as they drink.

And you will not see the pre-night drink
Of abuse and degradation at work. No vocal
Outlet for the cigarette-tip treatment from bosses, who slur
Their demands into the intercom, inviting the boys
To turn grey inside. To grow thin of hair
As their shirtsleeves and trousers force them to dance.

You are blessed to watch this night-time purging dance
Of confused and lost young men. Watch them drink
As though it is air, sweetening girls with lanky hair,
Who fling shallow toothless demands. They send vocal
Suggestions of forbidden sags and folds. The weakest boys
Will be weighed up, then plucked away with a seductive slur.

This is the hunting ground. The office will soon slur
Into Corrie and the making of milky tea. No dance
Could be more deadly than that undertaken by working boys
Across the country. Confusing women and drink
For escape from their own lack of ambition, their vocal
Chords burn with forced freedom as rigid as their hair.

But what the girls see is a good shirt and stylish hair.
A smile too long. That doesn’t matter as one night will slur
Into another. And another. These individuals are vocal
But their cries are chaining them bit by bit, as is the dance.
They are linked on the conveyor, passed through the job, the drink,
The friends, the wife. Nothing to do but be one of the boys.

Then later, the speckled hair will remember the dance
That caused innocence to slur into entrapment. Now the drink
Just eases the pain they can’t make vocal. Such is the danger for foolish boys.