The speaker opens with two blunt questions, "What do you concentrate on / and who do you know?", then slips into a memory of youth: driving his mother's blue Buick down a country road, overwhelmed by desire for a girl. The feeling is so strong it nearly brings him to tears, and he wants to either flee or fall back on the safe, dull comfort of college friendships. Neither option really satisfies.
The middle of the poem softens. He finds his way home on a late summer afternoon, with leaves casting shadows and making a washing sound. The "exquisite tender sentiment" he feels is oddly unplaced, "neither here nor there," as if beauty and longing can't settle anywhere.
The ending returns to the fire of desire. Judging by the title, drunkenness is part of the picture, but the poem suggests that nothing, not rain-pure water, petals, or even ginger ale, can calm it. The mood is restless, nostalgic, and a little rueful, with the speaker addressing himself as "you."