The Palace Saloon
︎︎︎ T. Garrison O'Donnell
︎ Oct 15, 2026
I lean to Bubba’s key & snort a bump
in the bathroom, & the guy in the suit
who goes after me, name’s Hank, great
hang, he works for the district attorney.
The country boys in camo shooting pool
were spawned in some back swamp bayou
& look like the banjo player from The
Deliverance, an effete grad student with
big glasses leans on the bar & bores
a blonde Tri Delt with his opinions on
Lacan’s jouissance, Sweet T’s doing sake
bombs between kissing some girl with
bangs who looks young enough to be going
to prom, & me,
now I’m talking to
two girls who at this point for all I know
(so drunk!) could be my students. Belly
button rings glint on tan guts in the light
through cigarette smoke, someone hands
me a jaybird & I toke: tomorrow I’ll puke
in the sink & vow to change my life,
but right now at the Palace: I’m a Prince.
in the bathroom, & the guy in the suit
who goes after me, name’s Hank, great
hang, he works for the district attorney.
The country boys in camo shooting pool
were spawned in some back swamp bayou
& look like the banjo player from The
Deliverance, an effete grad student with
big glasses leans on the bar & bores
a blonde Tri Delt with his opinions on
Lacan’s jouissance, Sweet T’s doing sake
bombs between kissing some girl with
bangs who looks young enough to be going
to prom, & me,
now I’m talking to
two girls who at this point for all I know
(so drunk!) could be my students. Belly
button rings glint on tan guts in the light
through cigarette smoke, someone hands
me a jaybird & I toke: tomorrow I’ll puke
in the sink & vow to change my life,
but right now at the Palace: I’m a Prince.
T. Garrison O'Donnell is a poet from Virginia now living in the Panhandle of Florida.
Also by T.: Western