some loose change

Bar stools unable to hold a couple of drinks
A bar just busted and broken down
On the right side of town
Seems flooded with stories that would fly
literary provoking anyone to write a tale or read
Of the images and glories they saw written on the walls
Signs that say open means in real time tanking businesswise
As the owner hits the calculator buttons adding up
Profits that aren’t there
The lights flicker on and off
With no customers in sight
Round about the jukebox holds ghost tunes
Echoing crushed dreams of lives gathered dancing
Around it before once rallied to the floor to bring
Out more than what the present day had offered them
Oh what the night had in store
for them with a press of a button
And a cold drink meant more than follies of the past
Than off at the front door stumbling in
Comes a new customer that gets
a little dust from the bottles on their coat
A new potential customer lights up the
cash register only for false financial hope
Of new potential wealth but in the end,
all they want is help to the bathroom
And to leave a few dollars to be polite

 

Uzomah Ugwu is a emerging poet and writer.She is a political, social and cultural activist. Her core focus is on human rights, mental health, animal rights and rights of LBGTQ persons.Her work has been featured in Prelude Magazine and other publications. She is the Contributing Interviewer for Interlocutor.

Edward S. Gault is a poet and fine art photographer. He lives at Mosaic Commons, a co-housing community in Berlin, Ma. He has a wife Karen, and daughter.