The Bartender
He seemed a little out of place when he walked in that night.
The bar was pretty crowded, it was nearly 10 p.m.
He slid a little money on the bar and grabbed a beer,
then found his way to where the smoke was thick and light was dim.
I’d never seen the guy before. He looked a bit uneasy.
He slowly twisted off the cap then took a hefty drink.
I watched him rather closely, as he sat there, all alone,
just starin’ at the table, an’ I’ll tell you what I think.
I think the guy was feelin’ kind-a low. He looked—defeated!
It wasn’t long before he flagged the barmaid for a hit.
And for about an hour more he kept ‘em right on comin,’
but still, somehow—the way he poured ‘em down just didn’t fit!
He looked as though he’d given up—like ‘Life’ had let ‘im down.
He’d sit and stare, then briefly swing his head from side to side.
Then, softly lit by neon lights, immersed in clouds of smoke,
I watched the poor young fella as he broke right down an’ cried!
This was not the first time that I’d seen a man in tears,
but as he sat there, all alone, it almost broke my heart.
I’ve seen this kind of thing before, but never quite like this,
and I could only wonder what it was that made him start.
Maybe someone close to him had died, or fallen ill.
Maybe he’d been cheating, and his wife had found him out.
Maybe he’d discovered that his wife had been unfaithful…
But as I sat there wonderin’ what the tears were all about,
I turned and asked a local patron—one I thought might know—
“Ever seen that youngster, gettin’ drunk there, in the back?”
“Yes, I have,” the old guy answered… “that’s the boy from Wilton.
He’s the one that just returned from serving in Iraq!”
Mark Stellinga is a poet and antiques dealer residing in Iowa. He has often won the annual adult-division poetry contests sponsored by the University of Iowa Writer’s Workshop, has had many pieces posted in several magazines and sites over the past 60 years, including Poem-Hunter.com, PoetrySoup.com, and Able Muse.com—where he won the 1st place prize for both ‘best poem’ of the year and ‘best book of verse.’
