Education is Living with a Drinker
Everyone has an opinion about what one should do
You arrived in the crowd of yourself.
A sea anemone waiting to
reach into the party for
the pick of the girls.
That’s how we know
how a night turns to mourning —
we’ve seen this undoing a thousand
times. Embarrassment
so often our evening companion.
Jim Beam. Jack Daniels, refills of
champagne, the glamour starts in a
wave. How I died watching them
catch on, faces turn and droop —
the sidelong glance, the questions:
Is he with you? How does a man do
this to his family? But he has so much,
surely…the trailing off. Then the next phase —
solutions. What if? He should know when to
stop. The anger, the outrage.
Finally, a circle appears,
a wide berth, where he stands, a single
tear lost in an empty cargo hold
& you wonder how
anyone could be so alone.
You remember you still love your father.
The clock chimes. A dozen
souls worked through five stages of
grief in the solitude of an hour.
Best take the old man home
their education over, for now.
Copyright Simon Heathcote
