And yes,
the rumors are true,
I’m at the bar
at 2 a.m.
drunk.
$4 Jack
$4 Jim
$24 tab
still open.
And I,
sit,
in a drunken haze
agonizing over
the bachelor life
being overrated
and watching
the regulars.
Gormley, 86
smoking his last pack
before he is admitted
to the hospital.
Pancreatic cancer,
diagnosis terminal.
Janet, 72
her only daughter
went through a windshield
on I-85
three weeks prior,
still listens to her voicemails
every night.
Rocky, 49
Fresh out of county,
the first clean shirt in years,
$13.76 in his pocket,
an empty bic lighter,
and a picture of his son,
who he hasn’t spoken to
in seven years
and two months.
And as the jukebox plays
and the slot machines ring
and I close out my tab,
I think,
maybe
the tragedies
of a twenty three year old
were only tragedies
because it’d only
just begun.
Matt Mercado, based in Austin, TX balances is a writer who focuses on the human condition, ugly as it sometimes is. All writing is done in the late night and early morning hours before being a full time father starts.
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