Fun by Wyn Cooper

Fun

'All I want is to have a little fun

Before I die,' says the man next to me

Out of nowhere, apropos of nothing. He says

His name's William but I'm sure he's Bill

Or Billy, Mac or Buddy; he's plain ugly to me,

And I wonder if he's ever had fun in his life.

We are drinking beer at noon on Tuesday,

In a bar that faces a giant car wash.

The good people of the world are washing their cars

On their lunch hours, hosing and scrubbing

As best they can in skirts and suits.

They drive their shiny Datsuns and Buicks

Back to the phone company, the record store,

The genetic engineering lab, but not a single one

Appears to be having fun like Billy and me.

I like a good beer buzz early in the day,

And Billy likes to peel the labels

From his bottles of Bud and shred them on the bar.

Then he lights every match in an oversized pack,

Letting each one burn down to his thick fingers

Before blowing and cursing them out.

A happy couple enters the bar, dangerously close

To one another, like this is a motel,

But they clean up their act when we give them

A look. One quick beer and they're out,

Down the road and in the next state

For all I care, smiling like idiots.

We cover sports and politics and once,

When Billy burns his thumb and lets out a yelp,

The bartender looks up from his want-ads.

Otherwise the bar is ours, and the day and the night

And the car wash too, the matches and Buds

And the clean and dirty cars, the sun and the moon

And every motel on this highway. It's ours you hear?

And we've got plans, so relax and let us in –

All we want is to have a little fun.