|
Thunder Sandwich #23 |
|
Alan Catlin |
|
Last Call for Alcohol Unnaturally white, he looks as if he'd been giving blood at a house party in Dracula's Castle, says, "Not exactly. Actually, I've been in the hospital. Lost somewhere like seven or eight pints of blood in a couple of days. They showed me what it looks like inside where the ulcer burst. Next time I won't be shitting blood, I'll be hemorrhaging inside instead. If there is a next time it will be the morgue instead of ER. I'll have an Iced Tea and a bowl of soup." He looked as if "scared shitless" might describe his demeanor. Still this was a guy who had received last rites in an alcoholic coma twice, maybe three times in the past and went right back on the sauce. Hell, what was a couple of pints of blood among friends compared to that? Open All Night She might be all of 16 maybe made up not for some coming out deb affair but for as many one night stands, charged by the hour, dates, what the traffic will bear Fringed & bangled top conceals nothing dog collar necklace and matching spiked bracelets belly button piercings tattooed vaguely native american runic signs coiling dragons tear drop eye enhancers liners shadows of her soul on fire blonde hair already turning grey she'll never live to see 20 Return of the Rehab Ranger Drinking deeply of his pint of Bud, all he can say is, "Man, that tasted good." His drinking buddy seems mystified, "It was just another Budweiser, not like it was a fine vintage wine or something." "It is if you've been without for awhile." "What have you been, in rehab or something?" "As a matter fact, I was. I'm something of a regular up at Conifir Park but it's getting to be all crackheads and hard drug abusers. We just don't relate. Sad but it looks like I'm going to have to find a new place to dry out at now." Drying out was like a vacation for some people from their every day lives though for too many it had become as Yogi Berra once observed about a club, "No one goes there anymore because it's too crowded." What's an old fashioned drunk going to do when there's no place left to go? |