"When You're Out Of Schlitz..."

for Chris Byck

long as I can remember
my old man was always
sipping on a quart room
temperature set on some
kitchen table end table
coffee table picnic table so
when he died of an aneurism
at the Hotel Royal in Santa
Cruz a couple weeks after
that earthquake with the
same warm quart of Schlitz
in hand he just took a pull
from it was cool that the
inmate he was partying
with had capped it off half
empty before the meat
wagon came to give to me
later with all of his other
shit which I then brought
back to Oregon where about
nine months after that a
partner talked me into
opening to drink up as
tribute but we almost puked
so went back to the 16 oz.
bottles of Rainier that
weren't much better though
at least they were cold