Ode to Frat Party Punch – by ISABEL X. DRUKKER

Ode to Frat Party Punch—

 

Maybe

Sober, your deep blue would concern me.

But to my electric mind, my big wide-screen eyes,

Mixed with those 4 obese shots I had taken,

In you, I swear, I saw an ocean of galaxies.

So using both hands I took you and gulped you down like a god.

 

Then there was 3 of everything,

And 1 where there was nothing.

I saw love in plain kisses, I saw happiness in boredom.

My mom called, I answered with the hand that wasn’t

Pouring more of you from a pitcher straight to my gaping mouth.

“Honey, I know it’s late, but I’m filling out some forms—“

She was saying nothing, but I was hearing everything, so I said:

“I love you too Mom! It’s okay! It’s okay you never learned how to braid my hair.”

 

You were still that deep blue the morning after,

Reincarnated and spreading across my carpet like a cat, stretching.

And someone was next to me in bed,

Some unknown brother, sleeping while I was

Looking at your still deep still blue color.

No, I wasn’t alone. But all I could feel

Were the many, many worlds

That had suddenly left me behind.

***

Isabel Drukker is a rising senior at the University of Rochester in upstate New York., majoring in English with a focus on modern American Literature. She is a writer, dancer, feminist, and Texan. In her spare time, she reads, goes out with friends, and travels about with her orange cat Toulouse.