The Bar at Saturday Zoo

by Ellen Sander

A brew and you
the orphan
the redbird
of blues, a big young  

singer trying
a stage
hikes his voice
a twitched octave
against the
tic-clicks of billiards

Outside, where
steamboat clouds smudge
the cold spring sky
sticky winds sail a
paper-cut girl
past a molded moon  

The car radio passing by
kickdrums faint throbs.  We

walk behind shadows older

than what shapes them