A Poet and an Actor Are Sitting in A Bar By Jim Bourey

I said “Help me remember. There was a movie years ago,

about an English guy in the old West. In one scene the hero

was hung up by stakes piercing skin on his chest and his body

was stretched by ropes in some kind of strange ceremony.”

“Yes” said the actor. “Richard Harris played

a man called Horse

and the movie title was that same line.”

I said “I thought it was Redford

playing a wild mountain man.”

We drank our beers for a little while.

He said “Jeremiah Johnson was the guy Redford played.

Movie had the same title as the character’s name. We actors

get to pretend to do all the rough stuff. I do a good tough guy.”

I said “Not me. I’m married

to the truth. I didn’t even pretend

when I was a kid. Never.”

He said “I’m married to Ruth.

She pretends I don’t exist. I pretend

she still wants me. Academy

Award stuff every day.”

We laughed hard and finished our beers.

Ordered two more.

Jim Bourey is an old poet who divides his year between the Adirondack Mountains and Dover, Delaware. His chapbook “Silence, Interrupted” was published in 2015 by the Broadkill River Press. His work has appeared in Mojave River Review, Paddock Review, Gargoyle and the Broadkill Review and other journals and anthologies. He was first runner up in the Faulkner-Wisdom Poetry Competition in 2012 and 2016. He has served as an adjudicator for the Poetry Out Loud competition in Delaware. In his North Country months, he is active with the St. Lawrence Area Poets and has taken part in Art/Poetry projects in Saranac Lake.