Over and Done — A Poem

What do you do when the party is over? 

The endless parties of life

and their endless cycles 

with the tumbling of champagne 

into the breakable glasses 

and the tumbling of the legs of college girls

bruised as they stumble home

and use the black mirror to cry to their unshaven boyfriends 

who can only shrug

or like the teenagers puking in the frosted grass at dawn 

laughing triumphantly to each other after he wipes his mouth 

he knows a winter sun and the summer night of his existence

but cannot see the autumn afternoon 

and the promises it makes 

like us,

he wonders about the eyes of 

blue, hazel, and green he passes 

imagining their parties and lonely nights the same 

feeling the chill that follows behind the gust of wind that carries us away 

Where do you go when you are done?

soft or cruel,

I’ll be there too.

• party
• poem
• poetry