A Clean Well-Lighted Place by Doug Holder

          * inspired by Ernest Heminway's short story

All I want is a clean
well-lighted place,
perhaps the silhouette of a tree
shadowing my face.
A beer so dark
and deep
it loosens the secrets
that I keep.

The polished bar
gleaming with Mahogony
serenity.

No music
to break the spell,
a table,
an old man
before he faces
the stygian kiss of
the night
where he
dwells.



Doug Holder is the co-president of the New England Poetry Club and the founder of the Ibbetson Street Press of Somerville, MA.