dull bar

drinking scene

 

 

"sitting on the wrong side of heaven

 sitting on the wrong side of hell

 sitting on the wrong side of everything"

 

 

 

Two truckers talk miles

weight stations,

and cocaine

as the barmaid coughs up

a sharp,

wet,

smokers laugh,

at the racist joke

an old man tells

while he rolls up a cigarette

cracks with wrinkles,

and upsets

the heavy middle aged woman

feeding dollars into the slot

of a game machine,

trying to beat her own

high scores.

My draft mug sheds frost

into a soggy napkin and

I notice how useless

everything is.

The empty pool table

with a warped stick on it,

the display of snack food

behind the bar

that look old and dusty

The man coming from the bathroom,

coughing as he passes

a twinkling electronic dartboard

and a powered down

Creature from the Black Lagoon

pinball machine.

　

a hi-tech jukebox

that would never be used

because the patrons here

are low-tech with no interest

in the cyber-generation's toys.

Too early for happy hour,

too late to go in for work

We are all just waiting,

killing time,

trying to remember

or trying to forget,

and hiding from the world,

Of course,

we all could be drunks,

losers, the scum that lives

in scum town, but the latter

seems more romantic

and truthful.

Eye of the beholder

I guess.

Author's Note

help

Reviews

[Freedom's Child]

Good poem, the imagery does a good job of creating the picture. I felt a the emotion of being lost and the sorrow in the end. Nice job.