Pint, Pipe and Ramble by Steve Brisendine

I have danced with enough ghosts
already in this plague year.

Give me a glass of dark lager,
not memories, and let me drink
to my own company.

Let me taste the sweet burn 
of phantom-free smoke, and 
let ash be only ash.

Let my footsteps echo by ones,
my feet bear my own weight and
no other burdens.

There will be time and times enough
for all to mean more than itself.

Steve Brisendine is a writer, poet, occasional artist and recovering journalist living in Mission, Kansas. His poetry appears in the third and most recent volume of the 365 Days Poets anthology. His first full-length collection, The Words We Do Not Have, is due out in spring 2021 from Spartan Press.