That Same Old Sad Song

from "Bar Notes" I sat by myself in the back of a bar room, Hearing the jukebox and sipping a beer. Someone kept playing that same old song over. It was the last song I needed to hear. As if out of nowhere a woman's hand touched me. She asked if the chair that was closest to me Was saved for another, or if she could sit there. I said, "The last I heard, the country's still free." She sat down beside me and drank from her whiskey. She told me, "I've only got one thing to say. If you are as lonely as I am this evening, There's no need for both of us leaving that way." I smiled at her courage and wanted to take her. I knew how a desperate passion runs deep. But I told her gently, "I thank you, but no thanks; Tomorrow a memory is all we could keep." She smiled at me sweetly, and as she was leaving Said, "Maybe I'll see you. And maybe you're wrong." And while I stared into the beer I was nursing, The jukebox kept playing that same old sad song.