One sip at a time

My first poem of 2016. Written on a napkin in the First and Last Chance Saloon in Jack London Square, Oakland, CA.

Spread butter on your paws
and settle in, and drink your gin,
wherein you’ll find another sin
to claw at flaws upon your skin
you cannot shake; they snake and scar,
and follow you to wooden bars
embodied by the final hour;
the stiff and sudden empty power.