Baby's First Brush with Alcoholism
It runs in the blood, you know.
The mind may forget, but the body remembers
There are things you'll try to shake and fail for years
Etched in the nerves for generations to come
Love you grandpa
You ol' whiskey-soaked lush
You've got three daughters and three grandkids who won't touch the stuff
So clearly, the responsibility fell to me
It's extra bitter today
The saving grace my body has
Where it realizes that the fun poison it loves
Is poison after all
You can't even call it liqueur, can you?
Sweet enough to drink with a burger
Sweet enough to sip like water
Sweet enough to lose weeks to
Scotch was always your vice, wasn't it?
The scent of your breath scarring three girls for life
Scaring them away from our stereotypical legacy
Christ, you had good taste
But it tastes so bitter now
Floating on the sweetest cloud for months
I've lost the taste for complexity
Nearly 30 with the tongue of a teenager
It's a pricey habit for a gal too anxious to talk
Half-gallon of milk is half a minute of looking for loose change
Half-gallon of this would eat an entire shift ten years ago
Or at least half of one now
Did it bother you as much as it bugs me?
The drink didn't kill you, the smokes did
But did your stomach ever twitch after a good night
And have you questioning the validity of God?
You were an excellent Catholic, my boy
A serial adulterer and cruel as your mistresses
Only to change your ways so close to the end
Take solace in knowing everyone but Mom forgave you
I wonder how we would have talked nowadays
You've been dead for nearly half my life
And we so rarely held any meaningful conversations when you lived
If I read you this poem, would you fill up my glass?
But even pure sugar was too bitter for me tonight
My liver's getting sassy with me before I can actually stress test it
I made up for every imagined sin of last year
But this hasn't been penitence, just excess
It's a strange feeling, you know
To look in the mirror and see your face in it
I think I'll keep my gaze at the ground for a while
While I fill this glass with water instead
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