ATLANTIS ANONYMOUS by Richard E. Brenneman

We drove the clientele to lunacy --
you and I, one night,
when we ordered limeade
at a bar.
“Are you over 21?”
The friendly waitress asked.
“Two limeades, please, no gas
to gas us to
Utopia 1999 or 23 skidoo.”

You and I drove the drunks
to never touch a burning,
stinging drop again.

Wives had driven the drunks
to drink, to drink --
but we, we drove them sober,
and splashed upon them
the midnight ecstasy
of love well-met
from beyond the sunken shores
of ten millenia.

Richard E. Brenneman lives in Boston where he has been more recently published in The Muddy River Poetry Review, The Ibbetson Street Press, and The Nixes Mate Review.

While he has retired from drinking, he does have rich experiences of  social interactions in pubs, bars and the like.