Man, he used to live a life
Known all over but still a
Mystery to them all
You could see his face in the
Corner of every bar
At every party
Even the ones he wasn’t invited to
Leather on
Holding court with
The select few
Straight bourbon rocks
All the clichés at once
Like a goddamn fireball in the snow
Effortless
He would duck in and out
Unseen
And reappear elsewhere at the
11th hour
Too late for others
The exact right time for him
And they all followed his lead
Drums would sound
Drinks flowed once more
And morning after morning
Sunlight shone on his face which
Bar whisky red-eye
Remained unblemished
When you spoke to him you could
Sense he was mortal
Just like you and me
So with every raging night another piece
Of his soul would diminish
Gone forever
They would take it all
And give nothing back
But the booze fixed all that
And the bar lights and the women
Each morning frost
Washing his face clean
Of everything before
And then
Like all of them
He began to retreat into logic and
Into real life
Reading better books
The right books
With the screaming nights weakening
The evening became his home
In the mirror
He would consider himself for longer
Eyes looking back to scrutinise
Skin
Lips
Teeth
Hair
As with the desperate and lost
Most of whom given time
Find their way eventually to religion
Steadily he began to fit in and
Steadily he began to die
At last even the sacred music began to fade
Until it was no more than a whisper in his ear
A memory of friends long gone
And nothing more than
That.