Finish Your Drink

Neon buzzed like a slow heartbeat

Whiskey glass sweatin’ in the midnight heat

The jukebox groaned a lonesome tune

While the ashtray filled with broken truths

He sat slouched low, just killin’ time

Eyes like dusk, haunted and blind

A ring-shaped stain on the bar like a brand

Of every good thing that slipped through his hands

⸻

Then a voice cut through like a blade in silk

“Mind if I sit?”—the air went still

He wore all black, but not too loud

Just another shadow blendin’ in the crowd

“I ain’t here to cause no pain,” he said,

“But the meter’s runnin’ and you’ve bled and bled

This ain’t about hell, and it sure ain’t grace

Just the end of the line in a lonely place”

⸻

Finish your drink, we got places to be

Ain’t no halo, ain’t no plea

You can’t out-run what’s always been near

So raise your glass and lose that fear

Time’s a thief, and I’m the proof

Finish your drink… there’s no more truth

⸻

He laughed, a dry and tired sound

“Funny you show when no one’s around

I’ve screamed at the sky, prayed to the floor

But silence always answered more”

Death just nodded, pulled out a smoke

Offered one up with a half-joke

“You talk like a man who ain’t surprised

To find the reaper with tear-stained eyes”

⸻

“Got a daughter I ain’t seen in years

She turns fifteen come April, I hear

You ever seen a man die twice?

Once in flesh, once in goodbye?”

⸻

Finish your drink, the bottle’s run dry

We leave like whispers, not like cries

This ain’t damnation, it ain’t reward

Just the end of a beat that couldn’t afford

One more minute, one more song—

Finish your drink, it’s time to be gone

⸻

The stool spun once, then slowed to still—

And Death walked out into the chill.