He drank and drank until the liquor was boiling up through his pores. And his blood turned to bourbon and rum and vodka. And his saliva was like rotten honey.

While the kids toiled away in the clumpy sand.

And even the birds flying overhead couldn’t stand it, so they began to teeter to the left and to the right, until they made it safely away from the fermented man.

And his breath was wonderful. Like gasoline-sulfur-peroxide. Like a rare perfume.

And he sat there in the wide open, soaking up everything he could. Giving nothing back.

The top of his bald head glistened in the summer's heat. His bushy white beard, his lobster face - mocked the sun, as he grinned at that big bastard.

he went to light his cigarette

and a spark landed on his chest.

and for a moment,

he had his laugh.