These days,
it’s hard to find a bar that’s just a bar.
Now all the bars have a theme: sports bars, foodie bars,
live music, DJs,
and they serve sugary drinks, or craft beers that taste like
wood.
In East Hollywood there are still a few places
where the only sign is a neon that says: Cocktails.
The windows are bricked up and the walls are painted black.
Where we can sit in the darkness.
Where we can sit in the silence.
Where we can sit alone, together.
Where we can sit and drink,
no excuses,
no shame,
in peace.
It’s just a bar.
Westley Heine is a writer and multimedia artist. He is known
for his documentaries Poetry in Action and Trail of Quetzalcoatl, the latter of
which has a companion book of poetry. Publications of his work have appeared The
Chicago Reader, Gravitas, Beatdom, Verse of Silence, Bleached Butterfly, and Wellington
Street Review. His writing examines love, death, street life, class oppression,
madness, and everything from the disturbing to metaphysical revelation. He grew
up in Wisconsin, was educated in Chicago, and bummed from New York to Mexico to
California. He now resides with his wife in Los Angeles.
Instagram: @westleyheine and facebook/westley.heine
