You think he’s half-baked, & I say
no, fried, & both of us so boiled
we don’t remember why we
brought him up in the first place.
Was it the savor of gin, bleared
romance drifting in the bleached air
& the tonic’s fizzing as
it fetched the brim of the glass?
A schemer, a scoundrel, a shill
or a saint–who could agree when
spent limes pale like citrus coins
with no value on the plate.
Rodney Wittwer is the author of Gone & Gone (Red Hen Press, 2012), and the recipient of fellowships from the Artist Foundation and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. His poems have appeared in journals such as Barrow Street, DIAGRAM, The Literary Review, Memorious, Mead, Pleiades, Ploughshares and Verse Daily. He lives in W.Medford, MA.
