Instantly, you remind me

Instantly, you remind me of a train wreck.
Through agitated tequila
the quake of your tremens
moves little gold flakes.
Various small brake-fluid spills
slick on the low Formica table.
Where does real life end?

Twenty-some years in and out of rooms
careens between barstools, hovers like a fly
(took me too long to understand powerless)

Instantly, you remind me of myself
though I read your eloquent letters and
on the mornings when alcohol was your lithe lover
I knew you took words as your mistress,
surpassed me with the salmon slick
sentences, the word-salad garnished
your overwhelmed plate.

This place is fatly packed with cliches,
two sugars and the humdrum shibboleths.
Having done 301 of giddy jargon,
Instantly, you remind me of my loss.