Drink Poem by M J Carpenter

Ah, but the buzz passes quicker than
A wasps wings whizzing by an empty glass.
It’s the effect stupid, and it seeps in deeper
Than blood. It hit’s the head first,
And it makes me judge and merry jury
With the surly executioner, nowhere to be seen.
Then there are the eyes. They see only the golden,
Emboldened as they are, by the light.
The hands are yet to dare to meet the tonic’s stare,
But there is still time.

The heart and chest become steel caressed
Gripped by a warmth that can beat back the cold outside.
See how their tongues slip from Cicero to mistletoe
In four hours. Not me. Mine is tied like an indecisive snake
Unable to break, the ice.
Legs at eleven still plot a course by the stars
Stumbling out of bars, and already my head is beating
Like my heart did, fleeting, when I remembered,
Perhaps, a little too hard.