Poem: "Barroom Smoke & Whiskeyed Eyes"
A Romantic projects his fantasies onto a woman at the bar, and then he tries a doomed line.
This poem was first published in The Lost Country literary journal.
Barroom Smoke & Whiskeyed Eyes
By Tyler Morrison
That girl is that–just a girl,
A pretty lass, no more, no less,
Herself a self and nothing else,
Whom, I, alas, have never known.
But barroom smoke and whiskeyed eyes
Reveals her form and recognize
A phantom often fantasized:
She stands atop a pedestal,
With elfin1 hair and Beatrice2 grin,
Ineffable, inaccessible,
An icon of Grace, or Mortal Sin.
No liquor, no water, this fire could slake!
The smoke then whispers, whiskey-smiled,
”Though the sedge is withered from the lake.”
Her eyes avert; she blushes mild.
“Sorry,” I add. “Uh, my mistake.”
I drink my fill, cough and stand,
Pay my bill, and stumble off
In search of bed, or at least dry land.
That girl is that–just a girl,
A pretty lass, no more, no less,
Herself a self and nothing else,
Whom, I, alas, will never know.
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“Elfin” here describes a frightening Fae princess, one who could put knights under spells, specifically the kind in the ballad “La Belle Dame Sans Merci,” by John Keats.
Beatrice is the life-long love of Dante, featured heavily in his Divine Comedy.