---

A Night at Charlie's Place

by Robin Wright

Upstairs, a balcony snuggles above blue, red, and gold lights
that scintillate across the stage and dance floor,
above a globe light made of jig-saw-puzzle glass.
 
Later, people will be dancing in synchronized motion under those lights,
like glitter come to life, bodies leaning into one another,
heads nodding thanks to the band for a few less moments of loneliness.
 
I find a table in back of the twilight room,
order a shot of tequila, and hope this really is his last performance
with the young singer he thought he was in love with.
 
It’s early.
 
The only patrons are tired men lounging on stools
with well-settled grooves, sucking mugs of Bud from Charlie’s tap.
Marlboro Reds are within easy reach, and I wonder
how many years, marriages, and beers they consumed
before their choices made them weary.
 
Band members filter in for a sound check,
and the lead singer pours out lyrics of Love Shack through
bumble-bee buzzes and pig-squeal feedback. Nothing to do but
 
stop, adjust, try again. The man I still love
grabs a Gibson that looks like it’s been dipped in an oil slick and breaks
out a lead on Power of Love. His fingers press and slide the strings;
his back arches under the weight of notes. The sounds ring through, rise
to share space with wafting smoke. I down the shot and wait.

Robin Wright has had poems published in various literary journals, most recently in Amarillo Bay. Two of her poems were recently published in the University of Southern Indiana’s 50th anniversary anthology, Time Present, Time Past. She has also co-written two novels with Maryanne Burkhard under the name B. W. Wrighthard.