The Written Word

From: Rosechyk@aol.com
Date: Sat, 19 Feb 2000

The Yellow Unicorn

In the Yellow Unicorn bar
We waste the days away
Cheap beer and cheap thrills
There’s nothing for it, anyway

The trumpets jazz a woeful tune
Accompanied by a sax
Smoke the air in the little room
The Yellow Unicorn regulars laugh

The sun sets beyond the boulevard
And all the respectable people are out
Looking for the night on the town
And the Yellow Unicorn regulars laugh
As their musicians leave for a better crowd

Then sometime around 2 a.m.
When all the respectable places are closed
The bored musicians finally come back,
Get out their stuff, ready to go.

No more elevator music pollutes the air
No more hearts in ‘Frisco sound
The musicians jam and swing and shout
And the Yellow Unicorn regulars laugh
‘Cause they know what it’s all about

Soul and song fills the air
As the audience floats around the room
Real music, clear and loud
Cuts away at the Yellow Unicorn gloom

The place reeks of beer and smoke
And added to it, the musicians sweat
So everyone drinks and smokes some more
The Yellow Unicorn regulars laugh
Knowing things will get better yet

Then some time around daybreak
As the sun begins to dawn
The music slows to a somber hymn
And everyone is gone

The windows and doors are opened
And all the smoke flows out
Where it mingles with the mist of the morning
The scenery’s all a faded blue

The room is swept, the tables washed
And all the glasses cleaned
The radio moans a lonely song
Barely and echo of the music
That once filled the room

Late in the afternoon a light comes on
The doors are opened and the cigarettes lit
A drink goes for a dollar and a half
Soon the place is crowded again
And the Yellow Unicorn regulars laugh