Corner of the bar
On a busy Saturday night
86 years old
Used to be a beauty
That’s what she tells everyone
Anyone who asks

it’s difficult to tell
Deep ridges covered in foundation
A derelict facade
Like a deserted storefront
in a broken down town

Bright paint smeared
On a background of dust and grime
Of life and memories
war and peace
hope and glory

Why is she here
It’s noisy, uncomfortably so
There are quieter better places closer to home
Is it to absorb the energy of the young
to be part of a crowd

Maybe it’s just to check that
The efforts and sacrifices
The pains and the hardships
Were going towards
Making a better world

But she sits and drinks
Staring at the loud mouthed lads
The barely dressed girls
The mothers who should be at home
Out with the fathers who should at another home

I get the feeling she doesn’t like what she sees
It wasn’t all worth it
The world isn’t better for two world wars
Baby boomers
Millennials and generation X

Perhaps she just wants to get drunk
to get drunk and forget
Forget that her knees hurt
her hearing has gone
all her friends have died

 

She sips her wine

Second bottle of house red
Her dentures stained to match her rouge

its the cheapest on the list

And she has no one to give her money to