enjoy this Brian Looney writing
in the Scars Publications free 2011 PDF file chapbook: Punk Show
(click on the front cover image or the
title text to download the free PDF file)
And They Drink
Brian Looney
And they drink. My how they drink. This ocean wouldn’t exist without booze. Some of them are submerged completely, while others merely graze the surface and lap up the waves.
In the past, I’ve taken myself down twenty-thousand leagues. There was nothing at that depth except the darkness, and the tide never came up when I was there. I chose to sink, to imbibe the infinite, but eventually I was jettisoned onto the nearest landmass. My only reward was a sopping brain.
Here is my island. Here is my palm tree. Here is the red and black banner. It is the shade that shelters me. I huddle beneath its folds when the sun reaches its zenith. Their drowning loves and their drowning hates sing to me on the dry and burning sand. But I just bury my feet and hands.
Another island is apparent in the distance: a straight edge cresting the horizon. A flag flutters high above it; an ’X’ is spray-painted across the banner. Figures roam upon the surface, grappling like shades. They fight to distract themselves, to bury their sweltering wits. They can’t handle the heat.
