TO EXCESS (for Sherry Brewer Homrich)

it was poverty
drove us to drink
piss-poor beer
for hours before
going anywhere.

it was desperation
(camouflaged as variety)
compelled us to pick
whatever chick we could
to do anything she would.

back then i thought i was
a poet, and i drank far
more than i wrote. these days
i write quite a lot
more than i drink. i'm a poet

although i wonder
if anybody knows it.