SHOOTERS LOUNGE, NEW ROCHELLE, NY, HALF PAST NOON. By Dan O’Connell

twenty worn-out bar stools 

six wobbly pedestals

along the latticed window 

three out of five arcade games broken

one decrepit pool table

twelve drunks

but it’s only Jimmy who’s learned

to call his shots right: 

“I’m gonna miss.”

Dan O’Connell is a four-time award winning poet, and multiple finalist and honorable mention. His poems have appeared over seventy times, including in Mississippi Review, Homestead Review, San Francisco Reader, Parthenon West Review, RavensPerch and Ghost Town Review. A former Philosophy and Rhetoric professor, Dan has his own law practice with a focus on protecting renters and workers. He is the author of two full-length collections of poetry: Different Coasts, and Theory of Salvation. Find Dan O. at www.danoconnellpoetry.com