From the lighted tips of the cigarettes
Misty grey pirouettes smoky haze
In the spotlight, the Sparrow connects
the lost love to memories just to erase
In liqueur her voice like a funeral knell
flows over the tables of lonelier hearts
Some in company, more under a spell
Oh, it's always clear when agony starts
So they linger, watching life spill in drinks
Some stagger in, most just pass on out
Others banter, as the whore slyly winks
Many whisper, for the Devil can't shout
Few are silent, for their pain they can't face
Philosophers now barmen, Goethe in kind
All are damned, sharing a Purgatorial place
Hell is the 9 circles of the tormented mind
Lies are all sworn truths, in secret they bind
promises are bartered to a cheap 'maybe'
Penny for the dealer, answers for the blind
Blow the horn, the prone deaf don't really see
Daylight, like death always comes in a shroud
Turn up the chairs, open the torn black shade
The stage is now bare, gone are the lonely crowd
Lost in cabaret is the ace turned over dark spade!
C.A. Morrow
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/lost-in-cabaret/
