At the Bar

Bartending beckoned this series to limn,
watching them in the shadowy dim,
patrons: whether ordinary or strange,
many a scene was there to arrange.

All the same story, each a different version,
of life derived from a place of illusion,
yielding . . . free from inhibition,
interpreted for a visual excursion.

Veiled in ultramarine blue and sienna burnt,
on canvas humanity emergent,
under the influence of trupentine's effects
until the morrow - when life is still a mess.

Melanie Gwendahlin Keyes