Alone and Drinking by Steven Bruce

AFTER LI BAI

Snug

between the breasts of midnight,

I’m alone and drinking red wine.

In good company. Listening to songs

I love. Sharing a cigar with my shadow.

In this solitary night, there’s no politics

or pseudo-morality discussed here,

no tiny cock with an imbecile attached

to it wanting to prove his manhood,

no one whining about how empty

and meaningless their life became.

I wag my toes, look to the black void

where the priests tell us paradise lies.

As the moon strolls by,

I lift my bottle,

and we two keep to the gentle rivers

of ourselves.

Steven Bruce is a writer and multiple-award-winning author. His poems and short stories have appeared in numerous international anthologies and magazines. In 2018, he graduated from Teesside University with a master’s degree in creative writing. An English expatriate, he now lives and writes full-time in Poland.