Trade Token, Red Lion, Tiverton, 1657

This token, round like a mouth 

or a baby’s suckle

is mine to exchange for ale.

My wife bids I bring it home,

make columns of such height

the inn may offer food

in place of hops.

I say a man may make a meal

of merriment in company,

she claims with hungry children

the bread oven is not all 

she’ll set alight. Alas, we fight.

Thus, I’ll keep one token for her

and save one for me

the way our sons dole out their sticks.

I’ll drink my guilt and let the amber nectar

slip, not a comber but a knight

crusading for men’s revelry

the crest of the Red Lion like a beacon in my chest

I drain the rest and offer hers.

My route home is a toll road

where an empty purse refuses passage.

I shall bed down with the goats.

About the poet

Emma Phillips is a poet, teacher and short fiction writer. She lives by the M5 in Devon, which sometimes lures her away in search of adventure. Her work has been placed in the Bath Flash Award, Graham Burchell Award, Frome Festival Short Story Competition and has appeared in publications such as Mslexia, Gone Lawn, and Riptide. Her debut flash collection Not Visiting the SS Great Britain is available from the Free Flash Fiction Bookshop, Sparks in Bristol, and Amazon. She is currently writer-in-residence at Tiverton Museum, where she can be found between the wool trade gallery and the stocks.