Two Dudes Fighting In A Working Class Bar

Every once in awhile, people in bars get out of hand

Two dudes in a bar I was at the other night

Made like they were going to knuckle up

They were sitting next to each other all night

Talking about work or women or some such nonsense

The conversation seemed to have veered off course 

Just after 10:00

Maybe it was politics, maybe it was religion, maybe it was sport

It could have been multilateral trade agreements for all I knew 

Whatever it was, it set off a powder keg

For both of them began to raise their voices

And pretty soon they were yelling at each other

Half-drunk, slurring shouts condemning each other's opinions

Then came the more personal insults

Followed, of course, by a barrage of curses and invective

That belittled and demeaned each other's

Education, ability to function in society

And general attractiveness as a human being

It was right about then the noise of a scooted barstool

Rasped out

Alerting everyone to the fact that these two boys were getting

up

Signaling the end of the yelling phase and the start of the 

shoving

They shoved each other back and forth a few times

Then one said to the other, "fcuk it, ain't got the energy for it"

And they both just sat right down and looked at each other

Grinning like madmen in a hard rain

Then they raised their beers and drained them 

While the rest of us just stared.