Juke Joint

 

“Juke Joint” by Janie McGee

 

 

stepping smooth across rocks and rye
drinking the wood grain from planks
soaked with jazz hunched and swaying
on stilts in the muddy red clay of Jim Crow
wringing blues from a shantytown sax
pearled with sharecropper calluses
moist with the heat of a Saturday night
every teardrop shaped note that escaped
the tin roof made magnolia tree blossoms
hang heavy with redolent sweating sweet
shame of their pink and white bystander guilt

 

 

(originally posted December 2013)

Nip

Image from pinterest.com

(Originally posted February 2014)
 
 
a cordial is a fine neat drink
it sweetens thoughts that I would think

pure essence of distiller’s art
alas I’m told it strains the heart

but moderation should protect
me from an adverse health effect

so I’ll just sip a smallish cup
and see what verse I might dream up

Intoxified

“Summer Garden” by Maryanne Jacobsen

(Originally posted June 2013)
 

drinking summer

from leafcups

afternoon cocktails

of birdsong and butterflies

garnished with

shaded impatiens

stirred by a low

slender moon

 

Wine

 

“Toast of Wine” by Robert Smith

 

 

salubrious nectar
borrowed from gods
mortal palates enrapt
by intoxicant opulent
flavors diverse as the
fruits of the earth and
the inklings of tongues

it cultivates taste
ennobling man’s meal
improves his society
for he failed of friends
it enriches his solitude
dangers lie not in the
grape but arithmetic

sensible minds know
too much of a good is
a bad and that’s twice
true for red wine whose
hangover quotient runs
off the distress scale a
fact Italians learn young

 

 

From my book Onionskin

Drinking Destiny

“Whiskey with Cigar”
Painting by Hal Groat II
From dailypainters.com

all that is possible

swirls in my glass

I have only to drink

this immanent liquor

these distillate dreams

to sample the future

bitter gentian notes

hint at doubts under

honeyed excitement

for sweet opportunity

soured by fear of

a finish concocted

by external hands by

some trickster distiller

who favors a random

tomorrow who blends

smoke-charred tannins

achieving sharp flavors

of chance and surprise

so that heaven forfend

my best aftertaste

choices should matter

in least or at all

Caffé Corretto

Espresso and Grappa
Photo by taqumi
From flickr.com

fortified mornings

courage in a cup

bold espresso

splashed hard

with sweet grappa

melts the sleep

from the mind

lifts the hitch

from one’s stride

adds new verve

to the blood

puts resolve

in the eyes

and so doing

sets course

for the day

to kick ass

and take names

Conjecture

Portrait of Charles Bukowski
Painted by Les Leffingwell
From fineartamerica.com

(Regarding Charles Bukowski)

a drunk poet may win the academy’s praise

for staggering aimless coarse verse

but

no one should write on his hangover days

or he’ll give readers headaches or worse

Coffee

Photo from
Keurig.com

coffee is my drug of choice
it stimulates my sleepy voice
propels me through the daily grind
and clears the cobwebs from my mind
the only downside I can see
is twice an hour I must pee

Drowning Misery

Painted whiskey illustration
From moraswines.com

ex-wives ex-lives
neatly fit in
square bottles
decanted
three fingers
three rocks
at a time
charred oak
amber despair
sharp cut
vitreous lead
crystal sorrows
refract in their
fireglass tumbled
kaleidoscope sins
cold companions
that splendidly
burn off regrets
to make room
for the shame

Alfresco

Tall Hemlock in Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest

hornets in my whiskey
caterpillars in my wine
drinking can be risky
underneath a hemlock pine