poem of the day 05.26.15

john lennon pub

the john lennon pub

is around the corner

from the john lennon wall in prague

it’s full of tourists and ex-pats

who’ve just got done flashing peace signs

for their cameras

i like john lennon

so therefore i like the john lennon pub

even though they’ve mostly played

ringo songs so far

i’ve even found my nook

which is important to me in a bar

somewhere semi-private where the wife and i

can sit over three or four beers

with lennon and beatles photos surrounding us

and talk about how pretty prague is

i don’t really mind the americans sitting in the pub

the ones talking about

what geniuses beyoncé and kanye are

as beatles’ songs play

the three girls who keep trying to explain

to the czech bartender what hard cider is

because they don’t have to differentiate between the two here

or how when happy x-mas (war is over) comes on

they all have to sing it

and talk about how much they love christmas

how they wish they were in prague at christmastime

i think maybe it would

be nice to have a john lennon pub in america

a break from the sports bars and dives

we don’t do that kind of stuff for artists

in the good old u.s. of a

set up graffiti walls or pubs to remember them by

we keep fbi files on them

or they live in obscurity

as lesser talents get called geniuses

we ban their songs on the radio in times of war

and if they still get too loud

rock the boat too much

we send out one of our lunatics

in the guise of a hardcore fan

to pose for a picture with them

only hours before putting four bullets

right in their back.