Tonight at the bar
I met someone who looked a lot like me
That familiar wry grin, a loose gate cloaking intent
He threw a hammer punch, I never saw it coming
When I came to, the ground felt tacky in a familiar beer soaked way
There was a lot of throbbing going on
Somewhere in the recesses of the dark abyss that occupied my skull
Appropriately, I reached back toward blackness again
The second time, there was an arm connected to a face
It was asking me if I knew I was on the ground
That seemed obvious but I recognized the game
Soon there’d be fingers to count or follow, years to remember
The weight of elephants trampled my tongue
Tonight I met someone who looked like me
The knockout artist, Harry Crews would have walked away
Down here, every pant leg and shoe seemed darkly aged
They smelled of mild concern, perhaps blended with annoyance
This amateur, slumped between the stools
But I got the finger count right and a strong arm hooked my belt
The door floated into proximity and soon there was a wall
I loved that wall and they leaned me against it so I could
Scrape down the stucco coolness to it’s base of gum and cigarettes
The void behind my eyes expanded again
The man I met who looked so familiar receded with disgust
A pinhole of streetlamp glow pushed itself up on bruised elbows
It seemed logical to take the bottle of water coming into focus
After all I had crossed a vast desert, wasn’t the oasis the reward?
As I drank it occurred to me that the man I met lived in a suitcase
Collecting dust in my ribcage
He’d come up before, to say hello and mete out punishment
I tied his feet to my shoelaces, so he could walk in front of me
And I could keep a better eye on him next time I came to this bar
Exhausted from the effort, I allowed them to hoist me to the bed of a truck
When the viscous blackness dissolved for the third time, I was at my home
The ceiling seemed like a good place to start looking for myself again
So I laid there trying to remember to look for my breath first
And when it flitted across the horizon I listened to it slowly
Thinking of nothing else then thinking I should piss
But maybe first take off my shoes
The effort was eons in the making. It inadvertently set free
That man so familiar, but this time he let me get to my feet
So I could embrace him
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