No River Songs

by Kyla Houbolt, 3.24am January 10th 2021

This river runs into a bar. I can't go to bars anymore but this is my favorite 

kind of bar, like we used to have on the neighborhood streets in Baltimore,

where the drinkers mostly all know each other and it's like your living room

only this one has a river and I think the Baltimore bar-goers would be

pleasantly surprised by a river in their bar, especially those fellows who sit

there every morning around 6 am and hoist a couple before heading to work,

because the river can carry them off in boats and they can even take their

beers with them and possibly not go to work and because of the river being

so kind and full of sweet fish they will not even worry about their families and

the river will provide for them also because it is so grateful to be able to visit

their bar and watch that special basketball game on television and even buy a

pack of smokes from the machine because this river does smoke but only

just a little bit not so's you'd even notice because it is a healthy river and does

not want to die and does not want its Baltimore drinkers in the boats to die

from secondhand smoke either so it keeps the cigarettes in its car glove

compartment and only sneaks one or two on the way home from its shift.

There are no river songs on the jukebox. And once again, it did not get a

raise.