He does this sort of jig when he’s drunk and still drinking

Like a lazy footed Mohammed Ali

bobbing back and forward from knee to knee

I watch fascinated by this unconscious dance

Him gaining and losing his balance

momentarily locking out the bend from one knee

steadying himself briefly

until the locked knee gives way

and he’s jigging again

 

His smoking arm has a purple hand of stiff fingers stuck on its end

and a perpetual cigarette burnt down to the filter wedged in the V between two fingers

His drinking arm jerks out of time with his jig

it does this reverse beckoning action in slow jerky movements

causing his drink to slosh in the glass

but at least the fingers on this hand

can curl around a glass