$80 bar tab

you can't put a price
on the cast of characters
that rolls through the bar
on a windy cold thursday

you could put an ad on craigs
or on a telephone pole

but not expect the sort of out
of sorts that comes out
on a windy thursday.

a bunch of drunken fools.
drunken bartenders and their
birthday friends and us.

we roll the dice and throw the drinks
and hope that the glasses land booze
side up and we land in the same damn
bar stool again.
the next night.

Skateboarding

It was a beautiful day today in Pittsburgh
not beautiful in the conventional sense
rather beautiful in the February in Pittsburgh
sense

My skate hit the street my foot hit my skate
and I rode dirty through the grit and drying salt

another skater paralled my path across the street
symmetrical discord

another approached in my departure vector
three random dudes with so much in common

and nary a head nod exchanged as we each
headed off in our solitary pursuit
of company.

Heroin Junkies

Heroin Junkies
I thought as I met the couple.
rockstar hippie iggie pop.
marla singer.
loving living rolling together on
one another
but i sensed the booze wasn't
the only factor.

I felt disgust,
I felt vile, I
saw what they had together
and I hated them
because I felt jealousy.

Bob

makes the place seem lively with
his easy smile and casual demeanor
never letting his problems of
the day spill into the half
spilt drink he is slinging
a model of mediocrity in an
utterly mundane world
a savior of saints slinging
prophecy zen one
spilt drink at a time.

Rich

Rich brings the
house down at
Kowarski's which
is not even a metaphorical statement
because that dude is
sour and broken and beat
and brings you a drink
with barely a smile on his
time weathered face

he does his job
pays the minimum and
cashes his check
sleeps in his lonely
bed with undreamt dreams
of what once was.

Bartender

a bartender is the easily approachable
fully clothed stripper of my
every day drunk existence.
perhaps.

usually with more attitude
and less flesh
and 100% less chance of
giving me a lap dance and
50% less chance of
fucking me but
with 100% more chance of
bringing me a drink on time
straight up
on the rocks
with no water
or bullshit

Bartender

female bartender is a great
source of jealousy for most
women who dont understand the
intimate nonsexual relationship
men have between their bartender
their bar and their beer.
if we can cheat on you with a bar,
with a beer, or
with a bartender, then
you probably don't quite understand
the male psyche because we're
cheating on you with noone,
but fucking all of them.