Two Men in a Bar: A True-Life Poem

I'm in a Minneapolis hotel bar

Slick, dark and red lit

Sipping a husky tempranillo

Mindlessly checking email on my phone

Reading the latest headlines.

I'm aware of three men at the other end of the bar

Engrossed in an NBA playoff game

Because they are making noise.

It's Chicago and some other team.

The man at the end of the bar, young,

With dark frame glasses and short slick black hair,

Is especially loud.

He is a Chicago Bulls fanatic.

He offers a running commentary

In a clear voice that sounds as though

He's a color commentator on a sports station.

Two other men watch with him

And comment in softer tones

But the young man with glasses

Repeatedly proclaims his allegiance to the Bulls

Exulting with each goal,

And one especially dramatic dunk elicits a whoop

For which he apologizes

To the rest of us at the bar.

Murmured conversation among the three men

Continues during commercials.

And then the other two men settle up their tab

And leave.

The young man at the end of the bar

Must now watch the game in silence.

But only for a few minutes.

There is another young man at the bar

Seated midway between me

And that Bulls fan.

This young man has been chatting with the bartender

And they must be old friends

Perhaps in high school years before.

Just enough of a conversation to make it sound so.

The game continues.

The man at the end of the bar

says something about Chicago

To the man in at the middle.

They realize they are both from Chicago.

The man at the end of the bar says something

About Rahm Emmanuel.

The man in the middle disapproves.

Sporadic friendly conversation continues.

The big Bulls fan at the end of the bar asks the man in the middle

What do you do in Chicago?

I don't catch his answer,

But he says that his husband teaches at the university.

His husband.

The Bulls fan doesn't blink.

He asks the middle man more

About his husband.

And they keep talking.

It is as natural a conversation

Between two strangers

As you could ever overhear

In a bar in Minnesota

With a basketball game on the big flat screen.