At Café Kabul
there is laughter all night,
and the music drowns out
the darkness of the stars.
 
A couple jumps up
on their chairs and dances,
a table of students
trade jokes like weapons,
 
an artist makes fun
of his friend the poet,
an old man sings
as the barista grins.
 
Nobody notices
the regulars much,
who come every day
and stay all night,
 
sitting in shadow,
staring at their drinks,
making no sound,
listening with strange smiles:
 
Old Romeo,
who never scored,
Lottery Lena,
who never won,
 
Tony of the races,
horses running through his dreams,
bitter Maureen,
with her heart in her clutch.
 
And others too,
sick of TV and web,
come here in the evening
and listen with strange smiles:
 
there is no love
and there is no hope
and there is no joy
outside Café Kabul.
 
At Café Kabul,
there is laughter all night,
and the music drowns out
the darkness of the stars.

Christopher Bernard has published two collections of poetry, The Rose Shipwreck: Poems and Photographs and Chien Lunatique, with a third one coming in 2020: The Socialist’s Garden of Verses. His novels include A Spy in the Ruins and Voyage to a Phantom City. His third, Meditations on Love and Catastrophe at The Liars’ Cafe, will be published this coming January. He has also published two collections of short fiction: In the American Night and Dangerous Stories for Boys. He is co-editor of the semiannual online journal Caveat Lector and lives in San Francisco.