What's Sauce For The Glander
When Glander enters
even the barflies hold their breath--
not in suspense--but so they won't get a whiff
of yesterday's urine/semen/rotgut,
plastered in aimless greasy splotches
from his chin to his shoes,
he jerks like a marionette
then slithers to the nearest stool.
Hunching like a sick toad,
he licks white lips,
winks scarlet eyes,
bobs his rotten apple head
then mumbles out: "Blue."
Takes a gulp--lets it dribble
to join yesterday's brew--
swipes a sleeve cross his nose
dripping green stew.
Then
he notices the picture pinned on the wall
of Dolly Parton and her twin friends
and he drools on the bar:
"That's eatin' stuff," he croaks
and cackles aloud, fondles the barstool
and crosses his legs.
Then
silence
as the demon within
gives him the password
he'll repeat again and again:
"What is it--what is it--what is it to me--
nobody--nobody--nobody but me."
Until
a song on the jukebox
spins him around
and a fragment of lost lust
stabs through his brain...
Blinking frog eyes
fill with blue mist--for an instant--
then
Glander shrugs it off,
leans forward,
grunts,
and breaks
yesterday's wind.