A Bar

Painting by Salvador Dali



A Bar


Lorca, Dickinson, and Neruda walk into a pub.
It’s a pub we’ve all seen before,
full of darkness and smoke
and complaining. Neruda sits at the bar; Lorca
chooses a booth. Dickinson stands by the bathroom,
begging
for change for the juke box.

A fight breaks out, a dark fight.
Neruda has been talking to the wrong
man’s date. The man grabs Neruda
by the throat. Lorca breaks
a bottle over the man’s head and steals
the girl while Neruda recovers, never asking why
either of them would want to share the company
of so fickle a creature.

Dickinson finds change and begins a slow dance,
unaware
of the vampires watching
from the corner booths.
The vampires have been writing poetry.
It’s sad
poetry because all vampires are sad.
A bishop, a rabbi, and a horse emerge
from the bathroom.
It’s going to be a long night, Neruda thinks;
no. All nights are long,
but the days are longer.



C.L. Bledsoe

Posted over on Defenestration