Making up for yesterday

Rumple Minze

The peppermint liqueur…has a high alcohol content at 50% alcohol by volume….It is commonly taken with a "chaser" of chocolate sauce which allows the drinker to consume larger quantities faster, with little or no heavy alcohol taste.

The engineering grads’ campout: our first trip

together. Wise old Jack has poured Rumple Minze

with a chocolate chaser: a sure ski

down the slippery slope. Hours later,

you erupt from the tent, stagger through brush.

You retch and retch.

It must be two a.m. I think, “Everyone will hear.”

I stay in the sleeping bag. You return, apologizing

and reeking. You are so warm.

I draw you to me, my first love.

I smell the real smell of your hair. I think of you

outside. It must be two fifteen. I think,

“The stars must be beautiful out there.”