beer nuts ~ Jean Stinchfield

it’s just that being with you is a handful of beer nuts and i never really liked the taste but i used to suck on salted peanut shells at baseball games and throw the rest - whole, wet— down to the sticky seats below because children never consider that someone cleans up their mess and these ones aren’t even salted. but we crack the shells together and you offer me a hard little nut, unpeeled, pinched between your fingertips and i eat it and i let the pieces get stuck between my teeth and you crush another shell and i eat them just for the pleasure of opening them, for the pleasure of sitting outside with you and waiting for your watered down beer to get to the table. i will sip your beer and i will hate it. you will lean against me and i will watch you enjoy it.