sandy wooden slats
coconut covered lights
dried out palms
an assortment of bottles
lively bartender who knows my name
I spend Saturday nights here
meeting friends who aren’t really
pretending excitement that I do not feel
I am a bit of a lush,
here is Charlie now
Bartender
Somewhat listening
Pour another drink
Another sad story to tell
5 O’Clock somewhere
After hours
A sad break up
Hard day at work
Problems echo
Room spinning
Regrets climbing
Broken down old man in the mirror
Another drink, going under
Bottom of the glass
Acting delirious
Playing the victim
She walked out on me
Baffled through gravity
Another violin
A revolving door
Words being slurred
Bartender said, I’ve heard it all
The psychic walked into a bar
She said “I don’t like this!”
A superstitious bartender screamed and ran off.
He left his wallet.
“You don’t like what?” her camera man asked.
The TV audience was wondering too.
I was holding my breath, awaiting her answer.
“I don’t like that mirror behind the bar,” she told him.
“It makes me look fat.”
Bunny Brewster worked at Bab’s Balmy Brewsky
A sage bartender, who understood pouring whiskey
He sometimes tossed out bunnies who got to0 frisky
For that was not allowed at Bab’s Balmy Brewsky
I will have a Neanderthal with a sharp twist, Swiss on the side.
novice bartender from Ohio, smiled, nodded and rapidly complied.
make me a bull without horns, left foot in the barn.
Bartender shook this guy’s drink in mixer and began a fine yarn.
How do you keep all these drinks straight? I asked new guy at last.
I put a bunch of liquor in each and watch them have a little blast.
You mean you do not have any idea what they want? I asked with surprise.
They want attention, service, a listener and a story, said Billy Van Nyes.
I use to drink for pain
Heartbroken -
love gone away
Bartender fill my glass with another
Ice cold her heart was -
detached from everything we had
Bitterness surround’s my heart
I guess I’ll just have another drink
So now she’s gone -
long gone from my world
She put me through hell more times than my soul deserved
I’ve empty out everything my heart had of her
Tears fill my heart -
since it’s empty now
So bartender fill my glass with another one
I swam through a ocean of illusion
Dying of thirst
Going through the motions of confusion
Fearing the worst
I came upon her canteen
Seeking a cup of real
If for nothing else
A sip for my last meal
If only I'd have thought
Before I said good night
Maybe she'd have kissed me
In the pale Winter's light
Sometimes I see her eyes
Just staring up at me
Lips a little parted
Where mine are 'sposed to be
Maybe I'd be married
If only I'd have thought
Sometimes I see children
In a house we bought
But I was young and shy
Sometimes I think of that
I could have had a home
Maybe a dog and cat
So she wed a banker
Sometimes I see their cars
Maybe I'd been rich too
Not drinkin' in the bars
Oh, I should have kissed her
Maybe her love I'd found
Now I'm old and lonely
"Bartender pour a round."
8-1-2020
Contest:If Only, Maybe, Sometimes
Sponsor: Silent One
We share our love for writing
A seat at the bar is always inviting
Writing comes naturally
Alcohol used medicinally
Both had their own way 2 stop the chaos
The need to write doesn't take days off
Long, slurred conversations with ourselves
Asking for whisk(e)y off the top shelves
I stir & mix him concoctions
Absinthe & Champagne is an option
But a Whisk(e)y and soda is a good choice
Words flow from brain to pencil tip
On your way out don't forget to tip
Alcohol was a mutual friend
Every writing has to have an end
As he left the bar my soul is where these words were felt
True nobility is being superior to ur former self
I toss fire down your throat
pour you your bullet, goblet to gullet
glass-jacketed explosions
line my wall like church organ flues
ablution for absolution from desperation
libation-liberations for exaggerated exhilarations
bottled fevers for believers
kneel your mind
choose your raptures
you’ve come to my altar
now your blood I’ll alter
shaken, stirred, swirled, singed with little bonfires
as potent a potion as you like
each percent speeds your ascent or descent
your thirst it’ll wet and abet
I have spirits to lift yours
a cure in every liqueur
bubbly for the lively
painkillers for loners
oh, I’ll hear your confessions too
earshot with your liquor shot, on the house
no judgement nor penance
just a warped sense of time to let you unparch your soul
salvage the day
and get ready to face the next one
I’m your friendly mercenary-priest
enforcing a restraining order against reality
one more?
Cletus Schlunk went on a weekend bender.
He kept saying, "Jesh one more, bartender!"
He stumbled out of the bar,
Speeding away in his car,
Ending up in a major rear-ender!
Robert L. Hinshaw, CMSgt, USAF, Retired
Another Round Bartender
Today I went out for a cruise
By accident came cross some booze
Said hay sir partner
Fell off the counter
Yelled bring me ten more and snoozed
Written: Jan. 11, 2016
Theresa
Bartender, Bartender . . . mix me a drink . . .
and give me one of your alchemic, mystic concoctions.
Bartender, Bartender . . . tell me what you think . . .
as you give me your magnificent magic elixir.
Bartender, Bartender . . . I don’t want to think . . .
but I need that feeling of sublime nothingness.
Bartender, Bartender . . . I’m in love with her . . .
but only YOU know the truth of what I can’t tell others.
Bartender, Bartender . . . I’m really not a broken man . . .
and—believe it or not—I still have faith in my fellow man (sometimes).
Bartender, Bartender . . . I do love your alcohol . . .
and your enviable mastery of the alcoholic arts.
Bartender, Bartender . . . I dislike stupid people (immensely) . . .
and I avoid them (like the plague) whenever I possibly can.
Bartender, Bartender . . . my love of poetry is for all eternity . . .
and my passion for it knows no limits in the human imagination.
Bartender, Bartender . . . mix me a drink . . .
and whether one day I meet Jehovah or Mephisto,
please always give me one of your alchemic, mystic concoctions.
Gary Bateman, Copyright © All Rights Reserved - August 30, 2014
Written 2010
Flashing lights and sounds roll by
Hear the sound of muffled sighs
Sullen words cannot express
Just confess, and lift it off your chest
Told the priest would hear your cries
If you don't feed him blatent lies
Oh he's your only friend
But he don't want to hear your sins
He's off doing his own thing
But it's far from priestly things
Oh he wont look in your direction
Let alone show you affection
Even when he hears your plea,
"Hey bartender please!"
Gone are all your hopes and dreams
All you ever sought to be
Heard from all across the room
Are many empty pleas,
"Oh won't you pity me?"
You can close your eyes and count to 10
Again and again
But he wont come back to help his fellow men
He was your only friend, but he left you all alone
To wallow in your sin
He failed to listen to your prayer
Now your lost in dark dispair
You can hide behind your cries
But he'll see into your eyes
Until the time you leave his bar
And wobble to your car
Here, as I stand lost in a sea.
In a world that looks like a storm to me!
I hold it in, way down deep!
Next to my breath,
there's a secret I hide, a secret I keep!
I wonder...
How the absence of sight could be,
when my life is surrounded by
so many that love me?
To me they come for whatever they need.
Not knowing a true love is all I please!
My name "Munga" they all made for me.
"Munga...you're a goddess, you're a dream!
Munga, Munga!" They scream!
They come for a drink and a smile.
They come to dance for quite a while!
And yet, somehow it's true!
My secret hasn't been found.
I am loveless and I am loveless bound!
I've lost my only life!
I've lost my only crown!
Warm blankets and a bed so big
that I once called my own.
A copper sink and time was something never felt alone!
Each day I wake up and pray, as I wipe my tears,
I look up and I say...
"Just one to call my own where he comes to me
and calls my heart his home".
So, you see...
I stand in the middle of a storm you would
never believe was me!
I stand alone in the middle of...
"How many shots do you Please?"
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