Richard Bausch is a masterly storyteller celebrated for his close tracing of modern male consciousness. Eighteen volumes of fiction include Thanksgiving Night, The Stories of Richard Bausch, and the novel Peace. He is editor of the Norton Anthology of Short Fiction and received the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story as well as the Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature. A devoted teacher, Bausch is the Moss Professor of Excellence in the Writer’s Workshop at the University of Memphis. “Sam” is taken from These Extremes: Poems & Prose (LSU Press, 2009).

Sam

by Richard Bausch

She says, “Play the song for me,
Sam.” He hesitates, then plays
the goddamned thing. That’s how
he thinks of it, now, bringing forth
the shaky notes on the old piano.

He’s tired of it all. Tired of the boss
& his broken romance. But when Rick
wants to talk, Sam will let him—
Sam’s been with Rick for many years.
All the way to Casablanca.
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