No Chaser
Rent from DeepDyve- No Chaser
I was running in the heatglad to feel droplets of sweat
blossom from my foreheadtrail my face and fall
free, and for a momentI felt last night's whiskey
might void mecompletely.
It's probably trueI want to be pure.
So when I reencounteredthe percolating burn
I had tasted all dayin a glass of good bourbon
later that evening, I rethoughtthe basic shape of my life
for longer than usualbut did not pause
as I tilted and pulledthe bourbon across its ice [End Page 130]
and reintroducedcool fire to my throat.
And yes, I had a second glassbecause it tasted of fields
and flame and was costlyand I was at the table of a friend.
Don't get me wrong.This is not a poem
about dissolution or backlitloss. We are not speaking
in hushed tones. Sometimesa man wants a drink
and pays only a small price.I have two children
old enough to tend themselves,a wife I love like the rain, and
joy sometimes brings menothing but joy. [End Page 131]
Michael Bazzett's new poems are forthcoming in cream city review, Massachusetts Review, Pleiades, and Literary Imagination, and his work has recently appeared on Verse Daily and been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. His chapbook The Imaginary City was recently published in the OW! Arts Chapbook Series, and They: A Field Guide (Barge P) is forthcoming. He lives in Minneapolis with his wife and two children.
