Mickey and I rounded the house to an orange pool wrestling with an aluminum gloam, deck chairs and log quarters stacked in the yard spread against the high house, Maryland night bent through the gate rings, and whiskey seeds come toll. After twenty beers, I fell on my side, retreated enough to throw up alone, sedate rectangles over speeding asphalt. Dazed, I wandered inside & found the girl in the water heater room, pink bra under bare bulb, feasting on the joists. Mickey drove me back. My sister was on the phone, laughing, while I sat in the stitch of my room waiting for an axe handle lullaby.