The One About the Mirror in the Bathroom of This Bar

~Ivan M. Juretic

 

It’s Friday and the moon is full.

The nation has spent the day mourning,

but what do you know about that,

sitting here, drinking

in this bar?

 

There’s an empty frame

where the mirror should be

in the bathroom in this bar.

You piss and turn and see it:

Nothing.

 

In this bar a man gives you a bullet.

You don’t ask why a bullet. But it’s a bullet

he takes out of his pocket and gives you. A bullet.

 

Cigarette, November night in your teeth.

Hold that little pill, turn it

until the moonlight catches:

Winchester 38 SPL.

 

The moon, a barroom alchemist.

The moon, an empty frame.

 

Ivan M. Juretic’s fiction and poetry have appeared in Headlight Anthology, The Nashwaak Review, and CV2. He lives in Montreal and is working on a novel about love and war.