dogs bark

most of ‘em anyway

for some it’s a strength,

Jimmy named his bar after a dog like that

The Barking Dog

didn’t last long

and shorter every year

The Barking Dog, on the corner of an alley

and a busy one-way street

in a neighborhood people run away to

narrow brick building

first floor, next to a second-hand store

a coffee shop across the busy one-way street

where I sit behind a window

thinking these thoughts

transcribing them into a notebook,

describing Jimmy as a talented entrepreneur

a guy who made his dream come true

the bar had a stage, at the far end from the door

entertainment Tuesday nights and weekends,

some nights when the crowd was thin

he’d produce a guitar and join in

I’m not the one who found him but

I had been in earlier that very day

they say he looked like he was smiling,

the place was everything for Jim

his whole life, The Barking Dog