It Was Close

It was damn close, wasn’t it?!
You were sitting

in the Sunoco parking lot.
I had my budget

pretty much figured out.
I needed 4

and a pack of Camel Blues.
So, I’m looking at 11.75.

Give or take
And then you turn up

on the curb.

You just wanted
one beer,

“a” beer
and, damn if I couldn’t relate.

I scraped it together,
but, damn if it

wasn’t close!
I mean, we were that close

to not getting anything
left that we wanted

I’ll probably never see you again, my brother.
Not, at least, in the same way.

Unfortunately,
for guys like you and me

tomorrow is likely to be
another day.

–January 25, 2018