The Bullets Went thru Billy and They Broke the Bartender’s Glass by Lynn F Hoffman

The singer doesn’t tell us if the bartender
was drinking from a tall crystal flute
which was vaporized shedding shards
with Chardonnay every way or
if the glass in question was the mirror
which bars install, allowing
customers to fix their eyes on their eyes.
But bars being what bars be,
I’m betting that the shatter was on the latter and
that the next day when Billy’s sickly wife saw herself
in that mirror with the requisite requiem drink in hand,
saw herself Mosaically, thru the cracks by Stagger Lee
with bits of Billy embedded, lead-driven,
shining in the bloody, smoky light,
she saw herself shaking, making plans
to do her own damn gamblin’ there.