surly, sanguine bar in Silver Spring

[joel]

Your surly, sanguine bar in Silver Spring –
Four Corners – there your final memory
I hanged like trophies on its walls and drank
a soapy beer in unrinsed glass’s toast
to meeting you again for who you are:
another’s lover, my awoken dream—
I’m glad that haunt was not a ghost of my
familiarity, that drunk goodbye—
and I was glad to leave you there to seem
alike gratuities I left the bar
maid, payments for some laughs enjoyed; I’d boast
to me I left you there like foul and rank
reminders of a taste toxicity
like alcohol provided: mellowing.