Patrons

Justice is an ideal dying, hung in the balance,
and Justin is a real man whose beliefs ate themselves.

Dana is caught up with the latest fashionable malady.
Though we all know that she'll change neuroses next season.

Jared is on TV, lying through his plastic, glued-on grin.

Coming off like a game show host who knows the show is rigged.

Regarding Sinatra, Kerouac, Ginsberg, Guthrie, and Dylan,
Michael muses how soon there will be no more decent legends.

Reid is a nervous man, anxious for acceptance, fidgety, stammering as he works: the butt of their jokes and no clue why.

Katie is a wanna-be goddess, whore taking center stage
The latest, greatest, dyed-bombshell, die tomorrow legend.

Guess who got busted in the backseat of his girlfriend's car?
Hey Andrew, new-found make-out prince - that's the risk taken.

And there's an old bum who says he could've been James Dean.  
Jarron and Evan nod knowing exactly what he means.

Fauna's the ghost playing flute and sax
in the willow tree - 2am - springtime

And Liam is the man staring at people he sees sometimes.
then he wonders why the bartender takes so long on Tuesdays.

Niagara

I
Flailing across an empty diner, a trail
of out-of-place chairs, the words screamed
aren't really her, the motions? She'd control
if she could.  Best that can be done now is
to pick up the food knocked off the table.  
The young man who came in with her
does his best to try and calm the situation . . .
the most he can do now is hold her close
and promise that everything is fine . . .
Niagara

II
Kerry and I were playing guitar when the
scene began in the Harbortown Diner.
We've played here since the reopening in '94.
You see strange things when you've been in one
place this long, nothing unusual lately, until
we saw this.  We stopped the set and watched the
commotion.  The girl spent the next five minutes
apologizing for the syndrome that has been her private
hell.  The young man sits her down, he still getting
used to this. I don't know if anyone could get used to
it . . .  Mandy brought their food and assured them no hard
feelings.  Kerry said she heard the boy say, "I love you"
Niagara

III
And there I was at the counter when the show began.
Here I am now across the street, looking outward at the
fishing boats and I think that somewhere is a moral I'm
missing.  That the heart beats on and "Love cannot be
controlled"  It rolls through, spats out, runs down I watch
them enjoy their time together and take another drink to toast
their happiness . . . to be searching for my own . . .
Niagara