black beach drunk

allow me to squeeze
the vodka from my head
so I can love you with some grace.
now
is unabashed
like the angry black waves
just listening to the wind
without a human kind of ear

and free, too, from fear.
except I don't know why I did this sweetness
to myself.
And I wouldn't want you to see me
drunk.
Though it is prettiness
spilling,
sloshing hot
over mug edges,
it might burn you.
 
but I'm stumbling
to another Tom Waits album
that puts your voice in my ear.
singing brave
to the balcony.
I know where we are
now.
I'll feed my vibrato
my love
and wait on my worry
until New Orleans
has not only my heart and attention
but my address.