Concert at Bernie's

by Donal Mahoney

When Bernie wakes at 6 a.m.

there's a piano on his chest

and Erroll Garner's playing "Misty."
Sinatra's on the headboard

improvising lyrics

and Krupa's in the corner

painting on the drums.

The music is magnificent.
Once the song is over

Bernie chants his morning prayers,

shaves and showers and limps to work

for another day at the gherkin factory.
The foreman, Mr. Simpkins, is an ogre

nonpareil, a sumbitch unsurpassed,

who stalks the catwalk all day long

with megaphone and stopwatch.
At 5 p.m. the factory spits Bernie

and his cohorts out the door

so Bernie limps to the Hot Wok Shack

and buys a carton of Egg Fu Yung

and heads back home to wait for dawn

so he can hear Erroll play "Night and Day"

while Sinatra does the vocal and

Krupa punctuates the piece

softly on the drums.

Bernie spends each day in hell but dawn

is always a concert from heaven.