It begins with a single acoustic guitar
a few chords easily strummed
before the snare taps in
and we collapse
into a world much like this bar where
strands of white Christmas lights strewn over
the rows of bottles seem to represent this evening
a map of burned out stars
mirrored backwards and receding
into a deeper almost reachable meaning we only notice
sometimes like this local news program showing yesterday’s
interception touchdown dance replay
for the thirteenth fucking time
or the silence revealed by knocks and comments from
the Addams Family pinball machine before dollar bills are produced
and inserted into the jukebox
to play track seven from a certain double-album repeatedly
as the lyrics begin
Let me follow you down
so hey whatever good times
or trouble we start to feel happy again knowing our girlfriends
are in love with us
and far away though we are here and remember
Michelle who keeps pouring for us from just across the counter
administering the dark waves
within the waves of darkness
that move inside of us sometimes making us all just
uncomfortable enough that we
must crack jokes and stare at this woman in her leopard skin coat
sitting at the corner who smokes
and fidgets with her cell phone as if she were waiting
for the rain to stop falling on the plastic tarp that’s blown across
the street
and on everyone downtown
we think we won’t become