IN COLLEGE

after a few beers
we’d look over to one another
and smile

use that timeless alcoholic
adage, “finally, I’m starting to feel
like myself again.”

now, about a decade later
it takes more

and at times

in the midst of the bigger
and longer benders

we look over to one another
after maybe six or eight beers

and we growl like a couple miserable
old men, “fuckin’ inflation.”