Take Me Back To Sweetwater Tavern after “If You Really Want To Ruin Me” by Megan Fal- Claire Paschal

What if we could untie the belted noose and breathe

your brain back to how it was before?

What if the postmark date flipped back

seven years. Your brain, a heavy sunflower

of history channel specials.

We rewind the ICU, the CPR,

the cocaine and the Xanax.

Dip into the chalice, pre-spike

of vodka in fruit punch. Before

the first hit of whatever it was.

You once told me: you name it, I’ve probably

tried it. Then proceeded to remove a weed

cig from your sock after my graduation.

We split a pitcher of Blue Moon (or was it

an IPA?) at Sweetwater Tavern,

which also only exists in memory.

O, take me back to the moment

we tipped the bartender. Walked

Commonwealth at midnight.

Any moment before you left for yet

another party of friends, only

to arrive at the hotel room of Dad’s

snores and Schwarzenegger flicks,

where you unwrap a 7-11 burrito

and fall asleep. O, brother,

it’s time to wake up now.

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Claire Paschal is a poet and writer living in Dallas, TX. She earned her BFA from Emerson College ('14). She works for a children's hospital by day and tends to her tiny balcony garden at night