Function

Girl hangs up her coat
upon arriving at the party
the music never louder
than the chit chat.
The brothers borrowing
their parents house tonight
knock empty beer
cans off the fence
with some old air rifle.
Friends of friends
sit on the backrests
of couches throughout
the living space smoking
with the windows closed.
A baseball game is on
but no one watches.
Childhood bedrooms
become rotating stations
of new conception
marked by lost earrings
and socks with holes
at every heel.
Eventually a song comes on,
that everybody knows
sending the volume up,
and for a moment
they permit themselves to sing.
In the morning stragglers
pile in convertibles
and truck beds
in search of water
and heavy plastic bags
of ice so that the riot
can continue on forever.