Two Bar Poems (From Donkeyland)

Bar Poems

Portrait of an Old Bar
In a Forgotten Neighborhood

Oh, down at the bar the boys
are playing, singing around the
bar, on stools, chairs by tables
they sit here and there
did you hear what I whispered?

I merely whispered
here and there the boys sit, like
pinned dogs in a cage locked
as dead as dead is possible
to exist and exist there still.
I said, a poet once lived there
I saw him singing and dying,
around the bar, on stools.
Across the room, a pool table
made from corpse’s, once there
their ghosts exist there still
as dead as dead is possible.
Did you hear what I said?

I merely meant
how glad I am not to be there
I’d be singing my songs with them
and bragging and singing and lies.
And I know now, and knew then,
it was my soul, lost in the booze,
my cage door opened, unlocked,
my drunken face, stopped singing
and the Poet got away somehow…!


No: 2392 6-4-2008




Noon Walk in the Bar

The spring sun beams
drift through a narrow bar door
as I walk through Death Valley with no shadow
It pulls at my breathing
and searches about for me.

The walls speak.
I hear them speak all afternoon
I will drink my evil, drink my evil
The craving extends
and reaches out to me.

The ceiling breaks.
It droops and smothers my face
in the presence of my friends, my friends
The world is full of friends
When you’re drinking!

No: 2393 6-4-2008