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Poet Dan Sklar pays tribute to a much-loved watering-hole in New York City, McSorley’s.

A TERRIFIC OLD PLACE

“McSorley’s Good Ale, Raw Onions, and No Ladies,” the bar’s motto. “The Old House at Home,” the bar’s name when it was opened by John McSorley about 1854.

When I think

about McSorley’s…

The time I went there

with my son

when he was seventeen

and the bartender

served him a mug

of ale without

even a second glance.

The times there

with Michael Kozak

(he lived on 7th

street too,

a Ukrainian

neighborhood)

when we were in

high school

and smoked pot

next to

the garbage cans.

Back then

it was a bar of

old men in dark

suits and overcoats

and hats and overalls

and work boots

and cigars.

There were cats and

communists and

sometimes some

college kids from NYU.

There was no TV

then, just a radio.

A bar of my dreams.

A terrific old place

to spend some time.

— Dan Sklar

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