At the Quinte Hotel

(CLICK FOR REVVER VIDEO)

I Used To Drink
by Jolie Blond
05/01/02

I used to drink every night
at a pool hall called The Galaxy,
a pool hall not far from China Grove
on the side of a highway in Texas,
cashing in my unemployment checks
for green time
and shots of Tequila
and shots at the bartender
or playtime with his calculatedly
cute-assed-by-design
bar backs.

I was covering the bar scene
for Action Magazine,
a hole-in-the-wall
one-room operation
run by a crazy old bearded coot
who had made so many enemies
with his own writing
that he hadda keep a vicious pit bull
chained to his magazine office
front door.

One of my own stories about a
Galaxy old timer
who had died on a toilet seat
at a Dallas Cowboy football game
had gotten me kicked out of the Galaxy . . .
but one of the cute bar backs
finally relented of my constant
scratching at the door
and let me back in.

The Galaxy was the place
where Jill The Amazonian Lesbian,
with her sturdy hips
and four-foot long mane of jet black hair,
negotiated with me over several
hotly contested games of Eight ball
to be my free-from-love fuck buddy,
a contract we both later agreed
had served us well.

The Galaxy was the place
where an average schmo like me
could pick up
a lonely prison inmate's wife
and give her release.

A lesson for you young men
with young wives:
Don't do the crime
if your wife can't do the time.

The Galaxy was the place
where a woman could come in
with her husband
or boyfriend,
look around,
see something better
and pick a fight
with her husband
or boyfriend
and end up going home
with something better.

The Galaxy was the place
where a man could come in,
cash his unemployment check,
get drunk,
forget all his problems,
talk about sports or women
or sports women
or any other such earthly diversions,
get laid or played
or watch others doing so
while heavy metal rock
assisted the booze in blasting him
outta his skull . . .

or he could shoot pool
on one of the 24 tables,
comforted by the booze-dulled
clack clack
of serious billiards being played all around
The Galaxy
for sex and money

It's not there any more,
The Galaxy.
It was razed and paved over
and replaced
with an insurance company
or some such other
useless institution.

Hurray
for the bean counters.

Tags: Revver, viral video, Quinte Hotel, Al Purdy, Jolie Blond, Galaxy Billiards, pool hall, south Texas, China Grove, unemployment checks, green time, tequila, barscene, Action Magazine, hole in the wall, bearded coot, pit bull, Dallas Cowboys, Amazon, lesbian, f*ck buddies, sports and women, poet, poetry, poem, spoken word, booze, boozers, bean counters, James Jarvis