Bar Life

A poem for Friday night – by Rob Schackne

She sits down too close to me

and orders a bottle of red wine

already loaded fast busting up

with her boyfriend on the phone

so she can tell me to fuck off

when I ask her if she’s OK

no that wasn’t what happened

twenty minutes later a guy shows up

they share a glass he’s smiling

then she tells him to fuck off

thank god for every small mercy

ringtone and she’s on it pissed off

my guess it’s parents I got my rights

rings off passes out suddenly on bar

stirs to tell the guy to fuck off again

who’s still grinning unaccountably

a new neuron in the morons club

ringtone again and she’s back at it

with some other poor bastard

yes she’s marginally beautiful

almost certainly terminally stupid

and inside the same universe tonight

some dumb things are going to happen.

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Rob Schackne has lived in Shanghai for ten years