EMPTY AND DROP-LESS
EMPTY AND DROPLESS
They jiggered the bottle
until it was gone
empty and dropless
they still carried on.
"ho-hoing" and back-slapping
the way old friends do
slipped the bar-keep a twenty
pub lively passed two.
Piano-man played "Passing"
a tune both men knew,
slit scar-tissue memories
awake from the booze.
Hidden behind the hedges of sleep
soldiers keep buried
their cold muddy feet;
their sights of the war
grow cataracts,
the dead in the ditch
stayed secretly cached.
Old War Horses seldom
open their minds to
recalling the bloodshed
and grief of those times.
Until happenstance
finds two old Army friends
one missing an eye
the other two limbs.
They jiggered a bottle
until it was gone
empty and dropless
they sang their old songs;
kept ordering up
one more shot and a beer
until one or the other
let fall the first tear...
ﹶ©Pam Barletta
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