Back to The Gods index
Previous poem


WHY DID HE WANT TO GET DRUNK?

When he was drunk
what did he see?
What caged thing
did he want to set free?
For everyone who gets drunk,
surely, drinks for a reason
and the reason is not just flight,
not not seeing.
The reason
must be vision -
the vision that we
want and don't
want to see.

I have always been puzzled to think
that tough guys would want to get drunk
want to be weak - want
what they don't want.
And I too -
not a tough guy,
but I know a lot -
I might want to know
what can be known
when the knowledge is gone.

Cocteau imagined death
as walking into a mirror.
Maybe that isn't death
but nor is it
nothing. It is something
that concerns us deeply
and maybe we drink
to get a momentary
glimpse of that
nothing that might be something.


                                                               Next poem - The Gods