I go to bars
to meet old men.

Not really, but that seems to be the joke
since it happens so damn often.

Can always see it coming, too;
the situational loneliness that drives conversation.

He sits at the bar with a cheap beer
like a Cliff waiting on his Norm

because it used to be his norm
going to bars and talking to anybody who would listen.

Everybody’s on their damn phones all the time, 
he gruffly laments. They never say hello.

I didn’t say hello–didn’t actually want to talk–
but I did offer him my menu when I was done with it

and in droughts such as the one he was drifting in,
a little spark like that is enough for conflagrations.

He introduces himself with a handshake
that could pop a tennis ball.

We make comments on the baseball game I came to watch,
swapping stories about our favorite teams.

He’s almost twice my age, curses something fierce,
but believes in treating people right.

You held doors open, said pardon me, said thank you
and you’re welcome. Nobody does that anymore.

Takes pride in his job, too. 
I’m self-employed installing real hardwood floors.

I work every fuckin’ day and I don’t get paid
until the project is done.

There’s something in all that I can’t help but respect,
a deeply rooted kindness underneath a weathered exterior.

He’s a near perfect example of what a conservative man should be,
despite a few viewpoints growing more outdated by the minute.

Some can slide, but I do see need for an occasional comment.
He appreciates disagreement that doesn’t devolve to name-calling.

At least one point, he does take to heart, says
difference isn’t so bad as long as everyone can accept difference.

A strong step for a man walking a world so unfamiliar
from the age he lived his life in. An age before phones.

That’s when his begins to ring. The wife, asking
where the hell’re you at?

The conversation ending, he buys me another round
before squeezing the blood out of my hand once more.

He thanks me for allowing him
to step back into a time he thought long-dead

then leaves me with a full glass
and a mind drunk with wonder.

How much better could the world, the nation, be if we tried
to more fully reconnect with our fellow human beings?