Between Orders

You need to understand

how something unremarkable can happen…

A bar room filled with happy heads,

their mouths unhinged with laughter

and talk of the town.

It’s a soft night in a far county,

a fine funk in the air.

At one table women are toying with emotion.

They are the fishers of men;

men jabbering about sports and war and motors.

And behind the bar is Dan, a man with a face

like a shotgun about to go off accidentally.

“How ‘bout those such and suches.”

a voice sounds out over the hubbub.

“We’ll never see their like again.”

another voice calls back in response,

before it’s lost like a leaf in autumnal waters.

And just then, or so the legend goes,

the front door of this fine establishment blows open.

Only the keenest seem to notice,

the world rocking in the coddled night.

Only the sharpest wits take any comfort

in the presence of the unnecessary.

Bruce Mcrae