A Dream of Drunks Outsmarting Me

I was a bouncer in a bar with two doors. I stood at the front door checking IDs,collecting dollars in a tin box for the musicians. When Billy and his catfishface drooled over the lovers and their red wine, Billy's sister said to me:See what he's doing? Throw him out. I listened to Billy's sister, haulingBilly by his collar out the door. Ten minutes later, Billy drifted in the backdoor, his whiskers dipping in the red wine of the lovers as he wheezedon them. I threw Billy out again. I wanted to hook my finger in his catfishmouth. He sprinkled piss on the curb and wheeled through the back door.His sister said: Billy's back. I told the manager: I want to lock the back door.The manager said nothing. He told me once that he was a helicopter doorgunner in Vietnam, high on LSD, that he remembered ten days of the war.I was a bouncer in a bar with two doors, a dream of drunks outsmartingme all night, circling like beer bottles on the conveyor belt at the factory.I was always at the wrong door. I threw out the lovers and their red wine.