Only Strangers Sleep in my Bed. By Don Robishaw

The green screen-door opens with a creak. 
A fifty-foot mahogany bar hides in a darkened room, 

cigarette-filled ashtrays, 

and overhead fans.

Sweaty patrons stand feet on a brass rail,

and others slump on stools with elbows on the bar.

Ah nothing like the whiff 

of a real drinking man or woman, 

that stench of beer 

and whiskey-laden breaths.

   

Something can be said 

of men and women 

who know that stench of failure, 

a ring in a card game, lost opportunities, 

that unused scholarship or GI Bill.

Ah, nothing like the sweet 

smell of resignation, 

of not expecting much 

from a disappointing life.

Something can be said 

of men and women 

who go through life with few goals 

other than where’s the next beer coming from.

When am I gonna get laid.  

Double shot of Jameson, in a snifter.   

You got it stranger.

Twelve hours later I roll over, 

flick on a dim night-light 

and shudder at the sight of 

the eyes of a stranger. 

Don Robishaw’s collection of five FF tales found in, ‘Bad Road Ahead’ was the Grand Winner in Defenestrationism, 2020 Flash Fiction Suite Contest.

Don’s short story entitled,’Bad Paper Odyssey’ was a semi-finalist in Digging Through the Fat 2018 Chapbook Contest.

His work has also recently appeared in The Rye Whiskey Review, Drunk Monkeys, Literary Orphans, Crack-the-Spine, FFM, O’ Dark Thirty, among other venues.

Many of the characters he developed have been homeless, served for periods of time in the military, or are based upon archetypes or stereotypes he's met while on the road. He likes to write poetry, satire, tragedies, and gritty fictional tales — of men and women from various backgrounds — that may have sprouted from a seed, from his past.

Before he stopped working to write he ran educational programs for homeless shelters. Don's also well-traveled, using various ways and means: Sailor, Peace Corps Volunteer, bartender, hitchhiker, world traveler, college professor, and circus roustabout.