Adam Stemple

BAR FIGHT

he throws the drunk
to the barroom floor
sickening crunch
of skull on cement
but the drunk is up again
nose flattened
and blood
from a thirty stitch gash
streaming down his forehead
he’s half-blind with it
but doesn’t know
he’s hurt
and he’s still throwing
haymakers
like he’s Don Quixote
and the bar is full
of windmills.

eyes wide
with the knowledge
of what he’s done
the first guy eats the next three
punches clean on the chin
before we pull them apart


Adam's YouTube video reading of "Bar Fight"


Adam confesses: "I’ve seen this a few times and experienced it myself: that moment of stunned inactivity when you realize what horrors you’re capable of inflicting on another human being."

ADAM STEMPLE is an award-winning author, poet, and musician. Of his first novel, Singer of Souls, SFWA Grandmaster Anne McCaffrey said, "One of the best first novels I have ever read." Of his later works, Hugo Award winning author Naomi Kritzer said, "No one writes bastard-son-of-a-bitch characters as brilliantly as Adam Stemple."