drinking beer in the snow by John Grochalski

there are two women

outside the catch-22 bar

drinking beer in the snow

dressed in heavy coats

wool hats and gloves

they sit at a small round table

sipping from pints

like it’s a summer day

and everything here is normal

i guess it’s not too odd

people drink beer in blizzards

at football games in green bay

but this is a street corner in brooklyn

it’s early february

and the football season is over

restaurants are only open for take-out

and the catch-22 shouldn’t be open at all

but where there’s a will

there’s always a cop or two

on the take

the women smile at each other

in between sips of beer

their teeth chatter

as they wipe snow off of their sleeves

and try to convince themselves

that they’re having a good time

while lighting drooping cigarettes

against the bitter winter wind.

 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.