LA CERVEZA MAS FINA. By George J. Searles

Amy frowned at her phone and groaned, 

“Shit! It’s almost noon already,

and I have to get up way early tomorrow!”

Of course, we all knew she meant midnight.

But scofflaw smoke was wafting overhead,

and our lovably madcap bartender was pouring 

everyone free shots, and good old Mungo Jerry 

was skiffling along on the jukebox, reminding us 

that it was summertime, when the weather is fine,

and we’d all had a lot of Coronas by then,

so Amy’s little error was understandable;

strict accuracy was not to be expected.

George J. Searles teaches English and Latin at Mohawk Valley Community College, and has also taught creative writing on Pratt Institute's upstate campus and graduate courses for The New School. The editor of Glimpse, a poetry magazine, he has published many poems in other small quarterlies, along with three volumes of literary criticism from university presses and eight editions of a widely-used writing textbook. He is a former Carnegie Foundation New York State "Professor of the Year." His currently favorite bar is Don's Rok, a total dive in Clinton, New York.