Toll Men

there is a small stone bridge between two towns that has a two man toll both.

5p to pass. 

two old  guys sit side by side - one with a liverpool fc cap, love on the knuckles and status quo in the soul - his colleague is made of gravel and fingers fixed in a heavy crane claw. 

we wonder how much they make - a plastic cup of 5 pence pieces - £100 a day? £500 a week?

we joke that they blow the £500 each weekend on booze, drugs and women. 

and then monday morning arrives. They meet at the toll box. Each at their own doors. the river black with a milky mist head. 

and  it starts again with a single 5 pence piece dropped in to a strip joint paper cup.