Earring in '77

At the party
Gladys was eating Oreos
& squeezing a plastic cup
of flat beer
when she offered
     to pierce my ear
     in the night
     off-campus,
that apartment
where Morgan
     fell off balcony
     of Paul's sermon,
     spirit of tequila deadened.

Morgan beat the physics of a falling body
& his two-story
Galileo drop
while Gladys
had me hold
a gold post
in a shot of disinfectant
     vodka,
she's close enough
to numb my lobe with ice,
to stare at her robust mouth -
     gap-filling crumbs between her teeth
     & Procol Harem
     reassure me

& a gold post punctures flesh
into potato backup.

An emergency room visit
& Morgan's still unconscious,
     unable to see
my flash gold earring
and the reasons
to make the drive home
     in bleary dawn.


©Eusebeia Philos 2013