Joe’s Bar When I Was Nine

April 4, 2009  (I was 64)

    Joe’s Bar When I Was Nine

You’ve heard of Joe’s Bar

everyone has

Lots of people have been there

Joe’s my grandfather

I call him Grampa

he’s bald and he always needs a shave

He was from the Old Country

too poor to stay there so he came here

He opened the bar before I was born

He doesn’t remember some stuff

so he doesn’t have to talk much

He talks Bohunk best

It’s only a three-two joint

so he sells bootleg shots under the bar

We don’t do stuff cause he doesn’t know how

He gives me pop and candy all the time

Some old guys sit at the bar all day

They smoke and spit in the spittoons

They have false teeth

Grampa tilts the glass when he taps beer

then he uses a plastic wand to level off the foam

He puts the beer on the bar

rings up 10¢ on the cash register

In the backroom I check the jukebox coin-return

I find two nickels and leave by the back door

bike through the alley to the park

I don’t know why his bar is so famous