Your Eyes Heavy

puddles reflecting our breaths
you're stumbling, slurring, furious
blurring, blurred, blur

the small stools bear so much
we pour ourselves into this state
until the cup is full, not full enough

give them to me
i am right
i can drive

puddles carry her blood
the flashing lights all hurt
you didn't see her
she couldn't have been there
this couldn't have happened

more weight than before
the glass is now overfilling
every swallow, in hopes that it will go away

you have no part in this reality
so you continue to pour pour pour

this is happening, this happened
when does it stop, it doesn't
it doesn't


This was a poem I wrote while working box office for a show at a bbq/bar on the night of st. patricks day. Living in the dorms for two years in college and working in downtown I always experienced drunk people, it's nothing new to me. But on this particular night I just saw too many bad choices. I was writing through observation and then it turned into a fiction piece as I kept going.

It rained really hard in Pomona that night, for the entirety of the night. I saw a handful of people fall on the sidewalk because they were drunk and it was wet, while taking tickets at the door, I could smell the already prevalent alcohol on so many of the people that came through the door.

But none of these things really bothered me, drunk people are drunk people, period. But it was when I started seeing these same drunk people falling on the sidewalks, not even being able to walk get into a car and drive away in this pouring rain, this drunken state. That was devastating. Not only are they putting their lives in danger, but the people in the car are also in danger and everyone else around you, bystanders, pedestrians, other drivers. We don't need more people getting killed because they just weren't responsible enough.

So I wrote this poem that night because I didn't know how else to deal. And I became more compassionate when I finished it, I became more understanding but also more sure about my lifestyle. Just some thoughts.