Toasting the Sun by George Gad Economou

deep into my cups I stare at the dawning

sun, at the sky turning blue all over again; I revisit the 

times we’d sit in an embrace on an algid, sandy beach

high on crack cocaine and rotgut, 

watching the dawn

of a new day. we’d always think that

one glorious someday we’d

make it.

we never did. you were gone too early,

I don’t have success written in my genes. it’s

fucking all right.

perhaps.

ever since I attended

your funeral, life lost

meaning. every barstool I hoist myself on, I expect

you to occupy the neighboring one. you

never

do. 

I drink alone, fending off anyone that

attempts to breach the invisible wall girdling me.

George Gad Economou holds a Master’s degree in Philosophy of Science and resides in Athens, Greece, doing freelance work whenever he can while searching for a new place to go. His novella, Letters to S., was published in Storylandia Issue 30 and his short stories and poems have appeared in literary magazines, such as Adelaide Literary Magazine, The Chamber Magazine, The Edge of Humanity Magazine, and Modern Drunkard Magazine. His first poetry collection, Bourbon Bottles and Broken Beds, was published by Adelaide Books in 2021.