At A Piano Bar
James Michael Ward
At a piano bar
the buys drink turpentine
drowning their miseries
and I am with them
sucking on my sorrows
like an ice cold beer
debating if I should bang some chords
or play a melody
this is the piano bar
the only other thing to do
bask in depression
of lonely nights
no lovers in sight
just sad tunes
resonating form the black tomb
of the piano player’s blues
step aside in your penguin tuxedo
I got to play a bar
of an anti-war song I know
“Waltzing Matilda”
the crowd show disdain
for my selection
they’ve come here to forget
the dead and dying
just another drink
to blind the sorrows
to forget the soldiers howling
that they hunt the blood
of innocent children
to hell with this bar
to hell with the games
I got the Posies on cassette tape
in the car
as I drive
four beers under my belt
forgetting what the drunk tank looks like
I’ll make it home
knowing the boys still up there
weeping to songs of their youth
sharing the truth of such miseries-
