During the War
by Brian Beatty
When the daredevil pilots radio in their signal is too faint to ascertain coordinates over the din of the jukebox and falling mortar rounds.
It's Saturday or the bartender would say something to the old ladies doing shots from airline bottles hidden in their coats. Besides,
with their castanets fashioned out of enemy hand-grenades, they're the cheapest opening act in town. Tonight's headliners take the stage as soon as their transvestite strip show
winds down next door. They karaoke and offer dance interpretations of the Patsy Cline songbook for their evening's second set, and therein lies the dilemma.
Local spies are flaunting guns in the direction of the big mirror. They ducked into this bar to escape their troubled mothers.
Brian Beatty's jokes, poems and stories have appeared in numerous print and online publications. He lives in Minneapolis. His joke column regularly appears at McSweeney's.