A Pair of Aces

Russ and I are sitting on the sidewalk, 
him nipping from his bottle, 
me puffing on my cigar. 

"I'm not gonna lie to ya," he says, 
"I'm an alcoholic." His nose 
is a purple mushroom. 

"Me too," I say, 
"sober 16 years tho." 

We talk about life, death. 
"I tried killin' myself once," he says. 
"Walked out on the bridge 
but I guess the parta me that wanted to live 
was stronger." 

I nod. "When I was first sober
I walked out there too. But I couldn't figure out 
how to clear the train tracks." 

"So THAT's why you didn't jump?" he said,
"because of the train?"

"Yeh," I said, "pretty much." 

He laughed, then I laughed. 
Because we could.

Comments

[Thomas]

For an atheist, you sure have an impressive ministry.