Top pocket blues

At the end of the night I asked to be paid. He said “If you want your wages, take them from my top pocket” Sitting at the bar with his cronies, the bossman had a bundle of bills peeking out of his breast pocket ‘I ain’t doing that’, ‘No Way’ I said and made my way over and asked the barmaid to pay me from the cash till. With amazing speed for a big man, he leaped over the bar, grabbed me by the neck and pushed me upstairs into his darkened office and gave me a cheque. I paid the band with my own money that night. Days later his cheque bounced. I threw it in the Garavogue and watched it float away like a paper boat into the Atlantic.