Tea with Honey

Prescription pill bottles on Sunday mornings
help us forget we ever had hangovers,
when Saturday nights were
closing bars and drinking
whatever was cheapest,
while friends we haven't seen
in years, laughed at our jokes --
edgy punchlines easier to say,
although slurred,
than long drug names we mispronounce
at each doctor's appointment nowadays,
even after we practised them every Sunday,
waiting for the kettle's whistle,
and wondering what retirement will be like.