Join the Neopoet online poetry workshop and community to improve as a writer, meet fellow poets, and showcase your work. Sign up, submit your poetry, and get started.
I Think I'll Have Another
Bob Schoenbeck died
thirty years
after he took his last drink.
I never really considered alcoholism
until I realized
I couldn't get through my day
without a bottle,
at least not the stressful ones.
And I guess it doesn't matter
what we say to our therapists and friends.
The only important thing
is our perception, right?
And so I guess I'll have another.
Whatever.
I guess this
is where the long train ends.
Growing up here,
there were two sets of tracks,
that got whittled down to one
by the time we moved back.
When I was 17 or so
I crossed the tressle
on the west end of town
with Scott and Aaron,
and wondered what would happen
if a locomotive came by.
And now I wonder about hobos,
if they even exist any more.
I wonder if Kerouac or Cassidy
felt the same urges.
Man, I want to cry.
Damn, I want to cry
on that bridge over the Charles River in Cambridge,
the most romantic bridge I ever knew.
But I'll be damned if it'll let me.
I can't get drunk
and I can't swear,
and I can't give up
or even be the slightest bit weak.
Gotta maintain the facade.
For whom I do not know.
So I'll have another,
and melodramatically tell you
how this bottle is my last friend,
since I've managed to alienate every one else.
Since I've managed it,
finally.
Comments
Conect11
Fri, 2017-11-17 00:18
https://www.youtube.com/watch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QN71-Snq2Z0
Geezer
Fri, 2017-11-17 12:07
Don't know how...
the stanza that begins "I can't get drunk," fits as it is. You might say that you are not supposed to get drunk, swear or give up and I think that would clarify the situation. Also the word [trestle]. Don't get me wrong, I like the poem, I just feel that it could use that clarification. I was a member of a congregation many years ago, that made me feel the same way and I wholly sympathize with what you have written. Good title, and all the rest, hope you keep writing this good!
~ Geezer.
.
There is value to commenting and critique, tell us how you feel about our work.
This must be the place, 'cause there ain't no place like this place anywhere near this place.