Delirium Tremens Poem by Gary Diamond

The screech of sobriety, the reverse hangover.
The black and blue brow-beaten headaches.
Where the throat is dry and the limbs must shake.
The fear pushing under the nails like spikes and shards.
All for want of a beer and a cheap cigar.

The whole work-a-day lifestyle is the trend.
But takes hours and many drinks to unbend.
Picking up the glass lifts a weight from the shoulders.
The joy sometimes deepens as you get a little older.
The shakes clear
The visions appear.

It's better here.
It's warmer and it is vibrant, full of love and joy.
Stripped of another layer of stress and hate
The old simplicities of life once more to appreciate
To feel comfortable in your own skin
It's the thing
If a little too fleeting.

If it's more than twenty four hours it starts to break apart
Like a ship on the rocks
Roving towards the bottom.
Lifting the arms seems like a chore.
I have to raise that bottle
I have to offer more.

They've laughed at us when they saw we were alcoholic
At first as a joke, but then saw it was chronic.
We had the strength to admit
Having a vice was essential.
Less like looking at the world with tainted sight
More like seeing the horror and the beauty
And being distressed and elated
Simultaneously.

It doesn't always work smooth.
A hitch must appear.
The fly we couldn't swat.
Some nights the scale tips dangerously to one side
And jams there
Either a night of unparalleled joy
Or one wishing the world would implode through your chest.

A risk worth taking, a gamble worth making.
The salve that heels the wounds.
To be repeated daily.
To be remembered soon.