Alone At the Bar

I was sitting at the hotel bar Another night alone while on the road Sipping a whiskey sour With my half-eaten dinner getting cold I called home to say, “Good Night” With an empty, “I love you” at the end Staring at the silent TV set Really hurt’n for a friend She sat down beside me Smelling like a freshly picked bouquet She said, “If you want to buy me a drink Well, that would be okay” I looked at her reflection In the mirror behind the bar Then motioned to the bartender With my cocktail sipping straw She said, “I’m simply lonely And you look like you are too Another night in another unnamed town That I just keep passing through” We shared boring stories about boring lives Pretending that we’re all right Getting drunk and inwardly wondering about How we were going to spend that night We complained about being misunderstood By our spouses left at home And even when we’re back in their beds It was just like sleeping alone We were afraid to keep on talking And afraid to get up to leave Afraid to share with the other one The thoughts that we conceived We drank until closing time Then she asked if I would see her to her room I don’t remember how we got there But we were at her door so very soon “Either way that we end this night We will probably regret the choice that we made Feeling remorseful about guilty pleasures Or wishing to ourselves that you had stayed Will one night spent together To stay our secret to the grave Make our lot in life any easier Or destroy a sliver of morality that we can save” She left me standing in the doorway As she got undressed and climbed in bed The sight of her naked body Put the whiskey spinning in my head I finished my business in town next day And took an airplane headed home Which side of the door I was on when it closed Is known only by me and her alone