Bruce Jacobs, "The Beer Joint"

Patch 4, Jim Davis-Rosenthal, 1999.

The Beer Joint
by Bruce Jacobs

It looked cool and dank
as the mouth of the stranger
we weren't supposed to talk to
The darkness was dental,
a gnashing of tinkling glass
even at 10 a.m., and
I imagined that the hidden men within
all had bad breath and looked at women
with oddly moist appetites.

I'd pedal my bike to one edge
of the invisible line, then reverse
around the block to stop
at the other side
We were forbidden to cross the doorway
and for me,
the monster in my closet
was enough.

Text © 1995, 1999 by Bruce Jacobs
"The Beer Joint" first appeared in Many Mountains Moving, Volume 1, Number 2. The work appears here by permission of the author.

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