he stepped in front of a buddy heading into the tavern from out of the alley

                                                                               Man yamight wanna not go in just yet  mebbe give it tenfifteen go around to the front look in through the window see ifa cat in a plaid shirts still sittin at the bar Youll wanna wait him out

Hes cryin in everybodys soup

Nobodys gettin a pass

The manll stalk ya

Hes buyin drinks

Ya drink

Yer doomed

Youll wanna shoot yerself

Whassup with him?

Hes upset

Whas upsettin him?

Letters  Letters he wrote home

Letters home?

Yah His maw died  She had kept all his letter since he moved out of his parents house Forty years of letters see

Forty years. There couldn’t have been ma . . 

. . Many Cat told me he wrote fourfive letters a week home and to other family  Imagine

Forty years?

Yah  He was in there scribblin a letter at the bar when I sat down beside him I asked Whoya writin man

Cat was writin his nephewya ever written your nephew

Nah. I don’t write a soul.

See  Hes in there writin and drinkin whisky an beer Bought me three rounds 

He bought your time.

He did  he nodded

they flinched as a couple of toms tossed some garbage pails getting at each other had to be some punany around or maybe territory

Fuckin cats.

              So what's with this cat, his dead maw?

She kept his letters His old man burned em

They were her letters, not his.

Yah I thought too Turns out his old man couldnt read his handwriting so his old lady read him the letters his son wrote him

He ditched hers and his see

Forty years?

Forty years Anhe said the letters were usually tenfifteen pagesfront an back

Fuck, man, cat had a lot to say.

Yah

      He said he could rationalize why his old man did itthough he thought he might have offered them to him before he burned em

I could see that.

Yah Me too

              Then he said it reminded him of his first girlfriend all the letterslove letters he wrote her When they split her new boyfriend was jealous of em wanted her to toss em

She resisted

One day the boyfriend went into her place when she was out took em all anburned them in the yard with some goofy carnival toys hed also won for her that she picked out

He burned up their memories

What a prick.

Yah Not gonna be a long relationship

She called him antold him all his letters were burned up

He asked why she didnt just give them back if he was threatening em Imagine how fuckin insecure  Threatened by old love letters  Written before he was ever around see

Jesus. So these guys burned up . . his memories.

Pretty fuckin cruel

                    But thats wha we excel athuh

Yeah. Wanna have at drink at Johnny’s up the streetI’ll buy ya onekeep your streak alive anless costly to your psyche

Me anmy psyche thank you  Yah

0850,  Thursday,  3  9. 20

Joe Cocker  The Letter  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlX5IWwizGg