This is all just guesses, but since no one else has taken a stab at it:
The narrator is talking to his friend, who is looking in the mirror in a bathroom at a bar on the night before his 21st birthday. He's saying goodbye to his father's son --i.e. himself as a child --and hello to his child's father --which is himself as an adult.
He's feeling very ambivalent about leaving childhood behind --he's drunk already and getting in fights. The narrator and the birthday boy have known each other since they were 12 (1999). They idolize and envy some other guys also at the bar --really no better than they are ("scumbags from a better town"). The tombstone in his hand is his drink --maybe he's already trying to drink himself to death. He's fighting to give away his dignity and self-respect but he'll want them back when he sobers up.
He may also have a child already --that he isn't taking care of --some lines seem to hint at that: "fertilize the village green", "obligations plague you", "your poor child's father". However it might just be metaphorical.
This is all just guesses, but since no one else has taken a stab at it:
The narrator is talking to his friend, who is looking in the mirror in a bathroom at a bar on the night before his 21st birthday. He's saying goodbye to his father's son --i.e. himself as a child --and hello to his child's father --which is himself as an adult.
He's feeling very ambivalent about leaving childhood behind --he's drunk already and getting in fights. The narrator and the birthday boy have known each other since they were 12 (1999). They idolize and envy some other guys also at the bar --really no better than they are ("scumbags from a better town"). The tombstone in his hand is his drink --maybe he's already trying to drink himself to death. He's fighting to give away his dignity and self-respect but he'll want them back when he sobers up.
He may also have a child already --that he isn't taking care of --some lines seem to hint at that: "fertilize the village green", "obligations plague you", "your poor child's father". However it might just be metaphorical.