Partial Dentures

(circa 2016)

I have a renter named Barry. 
His estranged wife  uses him
as an ATM machine for child support and alimony.
He works at West Point as a general laborer
and rarely pays his full rent.
 
He falls in love with a dancer in Newark named Candy,
and he buys her cigarettes and drinks.
He does not buy her $5 beers,
she “only drinks the $10 shots.”
 
While Barry paid money to sleep with her twice,
he claims she is not a hooker.
He also believes Candy is his girlfriend,
even though he has met her boyfriend.
 
When Barry was 9 he fell riding his bicycle
and smashed his face into the curb
breaking four of his front teeth. 
He keeps the partials in a glass of water
on shelf above the toilet. 
When the partials are in the glass,
I know Barry is home.
 
He gets a 30,000 inheritance from his parent’s estate,
and buys a blue Ford Mustang for $10,000,
he even loans money to Candy to bail her out of the tank.
I never see the back rent from his 30K.
 
I like Barry, a PTSD survivor
from his Army time in the Iraq.   
Some drunks made fun of Barry’s wrinkled army outfit
he wears to the bar Veterans Day for free drinks.
 
Barry moved out and I miss is guitar playing.

My wife wants me to throw the denture
glass out,  but I don't.
I use his former denture glass to drink whiskey and
water or a rum and coke sans the dental partials
and salute him.