Notes to Pass On

We’d been drinking all afternoon;
hot sun outside, inside ogling the whores
that stood drinking right alongside us,
sure that we’d never spend the money
unless we came in with an ear to ear grin.
I couldn’t see very well; double, sometimes triple.
she’d told me that morning, after I woke up;
coming to with a hangover and a goddamn truck right there.
space, intensity, whatever…
i’d heard it before and all I wanted was a drink.
nothing left in the place but recyclables.
So I went on down to the bar
pulled up a stool and started drinking.
She started to leave with some new beau
and I raised a toast to the best cunt
I’d had three women ago:
“To the converted Catholics;
may their holes never be satisfied.”
She came back and hit me with her purse
right across my back.
Then he came over and punched me
right in the nose. My eyes watered,
and I could taste the blood.
I hadn’t felt that good since she punched me
for diving into her ass without telling her first.
I turned around, asked for another drink,
then turned back around: “one more of those, as well.”
he indulged me and I almost fell down;
that son of a bitch could hit.
Afterwards, I got them both a drink, saying,
“All right. You can have her. Just make sure
you hit her the same way when she asks for it.”