Saloon Poem by Patrick O'Reilly

Everyone in here is ugly
Maybe it’s the way the light
Gets deep into the wrinkles around their eyes
Maybe it’s just the impression I get
From the smell of sweat and cheap perfume
But everyone in here is ugly

The lads are shooting pool under a neon beer sign
While Charlie is in the corner shooting the sht
To some peroxide blonde with a smoker's hack
And he hollers with a lecherous grin
‘Sam, give’s more of that horse-pss lager’
And he tips old Sam well, winking at the blonde
But as soon as Charlie’s money is gone
You can see her disappear from a mile away

Me,
Well I’m in another corner
And I done drank up my last dime again
So I do believe I’ll go out in the streets
Full of landmark gasoline rainbows and spilt-blood stains
And slowly but surely,
Though my eyes are like two pss holes in the snow,
I can find my own way home in the dark