I don't consider changing every instance of the word "drunk" to "drink" and removing the whole last stanza, "we got drunk together," as the most basic kind of editing.
When we talk about "butchery" we're not talking about one poem. We're talking about removing references to drinking, drugs, insanity, and other things that would offend the sensibilities of a Christian Scientist from half of Bukowski's Black Sparrow/Ecco collections. And that's just the cutting. The meaning of many poems was changed by pointless edits and rewrites.
It's a big, ugly picture that goes way beyond what you see here. And what's here is bad enough. Unless the words "drinking" and "drunk" mean the same thing. They don't, of course, so changing the word, minor as it may seem, changes the intention.