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#1
Grim Bartender slams a phone down on the table,
Thinks, "Heterosexual faggot,” with a pissed laugh,
“Thinks he can get the girls wet without unzipping his pants.
Good thing they’re all secretly afraid of him.
As good as carrying round a knife with him,
Those fish water eyes.”

The Bartender’s a man in his late thirties,
He don’t count nothing but for a phone
To call you a ride,
Or a phone to call the cops.

Nobody takes him seriously.
But others just don’t look at the boy.
He just got his license to drink,
Comes in here every other night or so.
He knows the menu.

They say he’s one of those redskin niggers
Whose daddy thinks is too good to stay on the Reservation.
Pale redskin nigger, yet to work a day in his life,
Comes here and drinks with the rest of us.
Nobody knows his name but the gals that check his ID.

“He’s still got a lot to learn.” An Old Man said
Once to his daughter, in the booth next to the boy.
The girl was fat, but the boy liked her shiny face
And kept staring at her.

And the Bartender slammed the phone down again,
“Time to call your brother…your sister…or whoever,”
He said, “You’ve been hanging round enough…”

“Oh leave him alone.” Said the Old Man with the fat daughter.
The boy got up and left.
He didn’t feel welcome here anymore.
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#2
Wow, powerful poem Rowens.
I cant offer much critique, except from commenting that the second verse seems a little out of place to me. I can see how it gives the bartender more character but it just seems a little tacked on. Maybe it is just that it is presented as a stated fact rather than an observation like everything else is.

I really like how the sense of unspoken but tense resentment and racism is portrayed, and the last verse really punctuated that perfectly.
If something happens and you can remedy it, Why worry?
And if something happens that you can't remedy, Still why worry?

www.benjack.co.nz
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#3
the bar sounds like a real shit hole Big Grin

i enjoyed the walk through
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