instant drunk

the year I became an instant drunk,

full of hustle, (“excuse me, man”),

sliding over to some vacant creaky barstool, methodically,

inadvertently singeing the ends of some barmaid’s stringy hair with my half lit stogie,

then considering her swoon away,

and almost deliberately,

falling into her personal ecstasy from this,

her latest fire

yup, in less than a year I officially became an instant drunk,

thrilling over a repeated first burp,

slouching while stirring another glass reticently,

lingering onto every echo that harmless sound made:

buuurrrppp…

becoming enamored by the jangle of the rebound it made

so this is just how my adolescence was spent

somewhere down there in steamy Mississippi,

comfortably lost

another wasted youth buried in those balmy Bayou trenches,

another wasted youth playing hooky from the infamous Tupelo Technical School

7/74

Bisbee, Az