Dive Shrine

He sits slumped on the barstool

Lips twitch as he fights to hold a grin

Aiming sighs at designs on the bottles

The owner's dogs, when they whine, kind of look like him

But when old thoughts arise

He's the happiest hound drooling on the bar

Howling divine from the bathroom line

While pinballs trigger visions of dead stars

Says he'll stowaway to Rome

Itching to smash a holy skull

While back, his girl picked out his casket

High sheen shellacked jet black and cheap

She said, "I like that it reminds me of his jacket

Hate to think he's cold in the earth so deep"

Now, he shivers alone when he's home

Haunts the bar for some company

Says, "Let's leave these fiends to tweak freely in the shadows

My roof's got a view of the neighbors' new TV"

His face looks like a painting in the disco light

He's treated like a stranger though he's here each night

A lotus slowly opens in a bowl near his seat

He wishes he could smell it, but his nose always seems to bleed

Says this place is kind of a memorial site

For a sprouting love whose bud was cut

I'd sign the lease, tend the needs of this dive-shrine

To keep its relics from the jaws of the garbage truck

'Cause it's getting hard to protect, you see

Time untwines all ties to memory

And people rarely come to pay their respects

Or sing some Pasty Cline over a backing beat

Soon I'll find a room in the city

Leave my things for the weeds, 'cause all I'll need's

A radiator and some space to breath

A place to get some sleep and outlive my dreams