P oetry R epair S hop (1999.08: 086)
- CONTEMPORARY INTERNATIONAL POETRY
- by new, emerging, and established poets

BISHOP FALLON
Bar Scene

Sit in the crowd
Act normal
Stare at something, pretend a thought
Smile
Maybe I'll have another beer, or
Smoke my life away, that's it...
Think of something to say...
Things I've done, people I've met
Thoughts and feelings and figures and words

Uh oh...smile...'Hi'.
Say something
Anything
'No, that chair's not taken'
Um.    Uh.
'Yes, that would be fine'
Um.
Er.
Ahem.
'No really, that's fine'
Just fine.
'What's that?'  Oh, that's just me sitting here, trying to come up with the words to be suitable and polite and simple and politically correct and smart and funny and accurate and human and 
That's just my heart on the floor, try not to fall over it, and
That's just me in an acorn shell, on display for the public, on route to the new life I had in mind, in depth and in full coverage, and it's not that I'm shy, it's just that I'm, that's just my...
That's just it.
Empty.
Not good enough.
No, no, don't say that.Drt
Don't say anything.

Mangled solitary slug limping up the window
Waiting for the next unavoidable fall
Always worse than before
Smiling
Pretending
Thinking of what he would say...


from Summation by Bishop Fallon
Poem copyright 1999; all rights reserved. (If you desire a copy of this poem, please contact the AUTHOR).