men standing outside the catch-22 bar by John Grochalski

the boozy semi-circle
of domestic light beer vapor
and cigarette smoke

their shambling silhouettes 
dancing against the streetlights

the sputtering violence of words

it’s obvious these men 
aren’t discussing socrates 

or china’s role 
in southeast asian policy 

tonight

 John Grochalski is the author of the poetry collections, The Noose Doesn’t Get Any Looser After You Punch Out (Six Gallery Press 2008), Glass City (Low Ghost Press, 2010), In The Year of Everything Dying (Camel Saloon, 2012), Starting with the Last Name Grochalski (Coleridge Street Books, 2014), and The Philosopher’s Ship (Alien Buddha Press, 2018). He is also the author of the novels, The Librarian (Six Gallery Press 2013), and Wine Clerk (Six Gallery Press 2016).  Grochalski currently lives in Brooklyn, New York, where the garbage can smell like roses if you wish on it hard enough.