They were the perfect couple...
You’d see them every night
sitting at the ash-stained bar
Never did you see a fight.

But the years rolled through
with no end within our sight
and the calendar took claim
to a lost soul one lost night.

Everyone went their own way
from this small Hoosier bar.
New friends disappeared...
Forgotten: the karioke star.

We have all grown older
since we lived back then.
We have all had our losses
and we have all had our sins.

Now that ash-stained bar sits alone,
dust-covered at night
Angel wings stir about in the room
and returns our memories to sight.

Some friends have passed on
Some have found other homes
but a part of me will remain
at that bar all alone...

Now the news has come down,
that perfect pair is no more.
Never will they laugh and drink
in the crowd upon that floor.

A car was hired to take him home -
they passed the bar with headlights on...
He took his life one cold Friday night
and this hearse just proves he’s gone...

Why did he do it? What’s the gain
as the world turns past another page.
In that bar near graveyard’s reach...
Lost dreams are lamented in alcohol’s cage.

The wishers, romantics, schemers and hustlers...
The liars, gamblers, jokers and the bizarre
are sitting all together mourning that
our lives are growing shorter in Wertz’s Bar.

©October 18, 2004 Lori S. Maynard