Drinking in the Park

July 1974

Crazy Jack and I got drunk in the park today
He’s always angry and I’m always sad
He does the talking and I the listening
We cry inside and keep on drinking.

I sell truth, he said. Who’ll trade me
Some truth for a sandwich?
Jack is always hungry—
For food, for women, for booze.

We are torn men, inside and out
Screaming to be seen, to be loved
We sell our philosophies in the street
Where we learned them, and we drink.

Jack and I are not alike at all
But we are brothers in our flesh
There are eagles inside our eyes
We flap and we fly and we drink.