Party Humidity

outside, it was raining as it was inside drinks spilling onto the floor from incessantly topped-up glasses held by forgetting, gesticulating hands spittle flying from mouths attached to people in love with their own voices their little huddled audiences salivating over every word or the prospect of taking their turn as court-holder the room drooling with go-to anecdotes and jokes rehearsed at a hundred parties like this one disgorged from speech bubbles like fat storm clouds filling dead air with stories on life support sudden thunderclaps of laughter precipitating further precipitation the floor must have been wet but thankfully not gleaming like the pavement twelve floors down the rain let up outside I slipped out onto the balcony and between sips of my stale beer gulped the laundered air