Drunkenness
Drunkenness
by Aaron Baker
After the barlight soft on sweaty faces,
After the Bloody Mary,
After the Zinfandel,
After the Cabernet and the Maker’s Mark,
And the ordinary jokes,
And then the Greek joke:
The Cannibal King said: The earth is round,
And the Greek Sailor said: Will you fuck me?
Both interpreting the same symbol–
Then it’s out, out, out into the cool and rain,
The girl walking fast,
A cellphone glowing in her pocket,
The El a cannonade above you,
And you are headed homeward, more or less,
And this moment and this hour
Will wheel away
And wheel again,
World without end–
No more nor less
Than peerless Helen,
Or the ships at Mylae,
Or a wind in Nietzsche’s hair —
As much as these,
This moment and this hour,
Snugged against the rain,
Waiting for the El.
Equal the words:
World without end
and
Will you fuck me?
I think it’s about two people splitting up after a night at a bar, the poet, “you,” “The Cannibal King;” the girl, “The Greek Sailor;” a “world without end” of possibilities and connection (“Will you fuck me?”) between them wheeling away into drunken inconsequence. While there could have been a “cannonade” of warfare and superhumanity (“Helen” and “Nietzsche”), it is only the “El” train roaring above, taking other people here and there, “you” is(are) just waiting for. I don’t see a car crash as in the photo, but those two “headed homeward, more or less,” separately. Maybe the relationship crashed. What do you think?