Arizona Nights
Feverishly I worked my craft
Like a mad scientist on the verge of his greatest discovery
I sweated grappling the screaming blender with my left hand
While manhandling a kiwi with my right
I combined fruits and spices, formulating the finest infusion
Pouring in the Goose, I heard the spite of the drunken Chinese girlfriend,
“You’re a loser! Make better drinks.”
“I am trying to concentrate, woman!”
She stepped onto the sofa in the living room
Dancing and singing to a song that existed only in her mind
The final rotation of the blender wound to its finale
With the creation complete, I laughed, summoning the drunken girlfriend to marvel
Fascinated we stared at the fruit and white tea vodka infusion
Bubbling with the icy pleasure’s promise
She thrust her martini glass to me, smiling innocent and sweet
“You bitch.” I scowled
Then poured her the fine concoction
A weight upon me, hair choking
The girlfriend, a lead blanket crushing me
Movement cracked the spine pinned to the floor
I kissed the top of her head and she emitted something unintelligible
For a moment, I thought she spoke Chinese
But remembered she doesn’t speak Chinese
Struggling to remove the girlfriend heap
Revealed the empty infusion bottle
Bled like a corpse by my head
Such pain!
The masterpiece of mixology
The amazing drunkenness
Gone with the memory of how to make it.
A vodka infusion experiment gone wrong while living in Arizona where I met a woman coming off a divorce. I cannot remember why I began making infusions, but I made a lot of them. Life went well financially and otherwise at the time, allowing the vodka infusions to fill the shelf above the bar. She and I had much fun drinking and filled with antics until life began a financial tailspin and work put a wall between us.
As it has many times in the past, work drove a wedge between me and someone I cared about.