14th off Sixth in ‘73. By Susan Tepper

This is the hard place

of tepid light, smoking

men seated shoulder to 

shoulder— scarce inches 

apart hunched over 

it’s lunchtime—

Overcoats seen better days.

Those hats some type of 

camouflage?  What am I 

in this dump off Sixth—

Barkeep whispers Last place 

expect to find a pretty girl

Making time— where 

the bar makes its sudden curve 

and my stool wobbles uneven

Susan Tepper is the author of nine published books of fiction and poetry. Her most recent is a chapbook of poetry titled CONFESS published this month by Cervena Barva Press.  Last June her road novel “What Drives Men” was published by Wilderness House Press, and shortlisted at American Book Fest Best Book Awards. Other honors and awards include eighteen Pushcart Nominations, a Pulitzer Prize Nomination for the novel “What May Have Been” (Cervena Barva Press, and currently being adapted for the stage), NPR’s Selected Shorts Series, Second Place Winner in Story/South Million Writers Award, Best Story of 17 Years of Vestal Review, Shortlisted 7th in the Zoetrope Novel Contest (2003), Best of the Net and more. Tepper is a native New Yorker.