AN AFTERNOON AT UNCLE VINNIE’S by Puma Perl

Uncle Vinnie’s Bar and Grill
It’s the type of place you stumble upon
when you need it and never find again.

They parked at a respectable distance
from the Harleys, entered a side door.

Stale smoke, Susan Tedeschi on the juke.
A couple of bikers shooting pool glanced
at them with minimal interest, took note
of his collar shirt and bleached out jeans,
her low-cut top and the way she touched
his back as she walked behind him. Hot,
but the type that knew what she wanted,
and for some reason she wanted the big
guy in his Target polo and blue sneakers.

The bartender, Ace, nodded at them.
His neck tattoo read Go Away.
He ordered a Corona, she asked for Diet Coke.
Ace leaned in, rasped that diet soda was worse
than regular, may as well drink chemicals,
You’re right she said, make it a whiskey.
Straight up, lemon on the side, water chaser.

Nobody knew that she hadn’t had a drink
in five years. They sat in a window booth.
The bikers moved to the bar, yelling
about beer, linkage systems and pussy,
and the drink loosened a bolt inside
her chest and she told him secrets,
most of them a little bit true;
after a few more rounds, she
asked him what he was thinking.

I wouldn’t mind a blow-job
he responded.
No problem at all, she said.
let’s get some coke.
The regular kind.

The Stones were singing Angie
as the door swung shut
on Uncle Vinnie’s.

Photo by Ellen Berman

Puma Perl is a poet and writer, with five solo collections in print. The most recent is Birthdays Before and After (Beyond Baroque Books, 2019.) She is the producer/creator of Puma’s  Pandemonium, which brings spoken word together with rock and roll, and she performs regularly with her band Puma Perl and Friends. She’s received three New York Press Association awards in recognition of her journalism, and is the recipient of the 2016 Acker Award in the category of writing.