Daytona Beach, Florida

We are drinking Korbel and Kahlua,
when the clock hits midnight in China,
we are kissing like the end of the world is coming
even though we know it isn’t.

Sorority girls jump on the bed,
In the corner guys yell Marine chants
And on the porch some people are smoking a joint.

It’s midnight and everybody’s kissing.

My redhead roommate met her kissing partner at 11:55
but now his tongue is taunting hers.
He asks her to shower with him,
but she says she can’t because
both her brothers are here.

I am wet and it is chilly on the concrete steps
in the outside hallway where the wind comes through
but I sit with Katie until 5 am
because that’s what friends do.

There’s confetti in my hair, in my socks, in my champagne.
My new earrings are lost in the piles of shimmer on the floor
I’m not drunk, but I’m not sober either
My face hurts from when I fell and ate sand
and saw stars and fireworks in my head.

This poem was written around the turn of the century.