Ode to the Mel Inn

A poem from ho-em

Blackfaced me

‘Everyone is welcome here’

said a sign over the door

‘Some when they enter,

some when they leave.’

The Mel Inn was the neighborhood bar

where my father held forth daily

(and night after night when he could afford it).

The Mel Inn where we children

drank fine little Cokes from 6 oz bottles

and ate (even better)

Better Made potato chips

to keep our stom…