nothing has changed
except the prices have gone up
it’s now two seventy-five
for a jack on the rocks
a bag of chips is seventy five cents
i could end up drinking here all the time
like everyone i used to drink with
twenty-five years ago
who is still drinking here
like dave parker
like sue boulanger
like rat guertin
suddenly i’m helping dave push rat’s car
out into the center of the parking lot
while it’s locked and running
and rat’s cussing us out
and we’re laughing our saggy asses off
and the car looks like it was made in 1980
and i’m wanting a cigarette bad
and it’s damn cold out here
and six drinks in one hour seems about right
all over again

when i awake
i know that
a hot song of pain
is what she will offer me
when i rise
and i will listen
even though i know every word
and could sing it back to her
backwards

tired of this
i decide not to recognize
my face in the mirror this morning
and it is wonderful: the craters
and the mottled surface
a new and threatening planet

who is that, i ask
who are you, she asks
not singing for a moment
i don’t know i say
but i will learn something of the geology
before i turn away
and soon
the room is quiet

this is the morning
of discovery and
i have no idea
what song would ever be appropriate
i cannot imagine
that one could even begin
to look at a new world
in anything but silence