This Useless Beauty

half a cookie communion on Hamilton outside Yocco’s Westspecial sauce not sure it wants to sit. I skate backroadstry to guess the name of a tavern in a cornfieldspied from atop the Eastern Pennsylvania starsgreeted by a bar as a strangerFree Bird on the juke, happy birthday balloons stuck static to ceilingthese people are all related, blood or marriagethey make faces at ancestry, the bartender fishesbottle service from a cooler with Pray written in black sharpieRolling Rock steeds rear up in cigarette and bear claw vapor smokea chorus of Welcome to the Jungle has broken outpretty girl daughter of birthday mom dances like Axl Rose to her beau leaned over a pool cueover the bar a sign says tipping is not a city in Chinagooseneck Stella pours, the chorus is onto Bon Jovithen to Clapton, then sappy 90’s country, they’re slow dancing in the next room with promo shots of 80’s blues hero’s the wheeze of the men’s room fanthe Busch beer ad circa 85 on the wall,a half-eaten cake, they ate the name,another sign on the fireplacedo not help with the fireplacea shot arrivesthe bartender pours dead soldiers in perfect symmetrythis shot a flawless oceanI hoist, expectations come easyunder my breath, I cheerhere’s to death culture