Drowsy and wonderfully drunk,
I lay down on my back on the carpet,
everyone else outside, drinking in
that limbo between high school and college.
Then a girl who was
my friend crawled up out of nowhere
and straddled me.
Bright-eyed and smiling
and very drunk, not herself,
she tugged at my shirt and said, “Come on.
Everyone’s outside.”
In four years I’d never seen her
eyes like that. Those eyes.
And not myself then, I could have
taken a chance.
The air buzzed around us;
everything seemed riding on
the beer on our breaths…
But she was my friend,
so I helped her help me
up, and we stumbled, arm in arm,
out into a hazy night.
For all I knew there’d be plenty
of moments like this.