It’s not too late to stop?
You’re wrong.
It is far too late to turn over a new leaf.
It is too late for everything
except me
and the spirits
and this race to the bottom
which is the only thing
I expect to win
anytime soon.

And
who knows?
For those steppers,
the bottom is the beginning
the place where a new world
can be entered.

Perhaps
it is only when empty,
when I can see
what is underneath the bottle.
Perhaps only then will I know
a better future.
Perhaps happiness is waiting for me
sometime after the bottle abandons.
But I suspect
at that time
I shall see something exceedingly different.