Toast 1] To the people we swore we'd be, with our elbows on the table, with a future we could criticize before it had begun. We would never own a proper suit or leave before the morning. We would never count the drinks or be embarrassed by the fun. I have found the photograph. I've made it everybody's background. Look at all that certainty. Look at all that hair. To the people we swore we'd be. Sit down, I've kept your places. You can take the work face off. We know who you are here. [Toast 2] To the friend who came in sober. Yes, we all admire the effort. Just a little for the picture. Just enough to raise the glass. We remember what you promised when we swore we'd never soften. Don't go making us the people that you needed to get past. To the friend who took the quiet job, the one we called surrender. You can laugh about the salary. We know you need the pay. He begins to say he likes it. I improve it with a punchline. Everybody gets the old him. He puts the new away. [Toast 3] To the people who still answer, though we barely ask a question. To the names we only mention when we need a sharper joke. To the one who stopped explaining why she doesn't come to these things. We decided she got boring. That was easier to quote. Here's the promise that we made: nobody gets to be a stranger. Here's the way we keep it: nothing unfamiliar gets said. I can make the room remember every stupid thing we've done here. I can keep the conversation twenty years behind instead. [Toast 4] I have booked an early train. The ticket's folded in my pocket. I've been thinking of an illness I could blame for going soon. There is someone I would rather have my breakfast with tomorrow. There is nothing I can say about it safely in this room. To the people we swore we'd be. I can feel the joke approaching. I have used it on the others. I can hear the opening line. I put down the glass and tell you I am leaving after supper. For a moment nobody can tell if that's the punchline. [Outro] The friend who came in sober asks the quiet one a question. He begins again. This time I let him finish what he says. I can hear the kettle boiling in the little kitchen corner. There is room before the picture. Tell us what we missed.
