My wife says I get sweeter

when I drink too much.

My daughter says I get

more aggressive when I drink too much.

My friend Jim says I get funnier

when I drink too much.

Does this mean I’m aggressively sweet

and funny when I drink too much?

Or that I’m comically aggressive

and sweet when I drink too much?

Or that I’m sweetly funny

and aggressive when I drink too much?

Or that I’m aggressively funny

and sweet when I drink too much?

Or that I’m sweetly aggressive

and funny when I drink too much?

Yes, I think that’s what they mean.

That’s what they all mean.

J.R. Solonche has published poetry in more than 400 magazines, journals, and anthologies since the early 70s. He is the author of Beautiful Day (Deerbrook Editions), Won’t Be Long (Deerbrook Editions), Heart’s Content (Five Oaks Press), Invisible (nominated for the Pulitzer Prize by Five Oaks Press), The Black Birch (Kelsay Books), I, Emily Dickinson & Other Found Poems (Deerbrook Editions), In Short Order (Kelsay Books), Tomorrow, Today and Yesterday (Deerbrook Editions), True Enough (Dos Madres Press), The Jewish Dancing Master (Ravenna Press), If You Should See Me Walking on the Road (Kelsay Books), In a Public Place (Dos Madres Press), To Say the Least (Dos Madres Press), The Time of Your Life (Adelaide Books), The Porch Poems (Deerbrook Editions), Enjoy Yourself (Serving House Books), Piano Music (Serving House Books), For All I Know (Kelsay Books), A Guide of the Perplexed (Serving House Books), The Moon Is the Capital of the World (Word Tech Communications), and coauthor of Peach Girl: Poems for a Chinese Daughter (Grayson Books). He lives in the Hudson Valley.