The Sobriety That Befell His Golden Years Poem by Raj Dronamraju

He slaughtered the calf
And he made the offering
And he followed through on what he was told
And he wants to sip a cocktail that tastes like smooth and carefree immaturity

Those drinking years are over
But sometimes an old man wants a taste
A taste of the strength he had as a younger man
He'll reminisce with an unctuous booze friend
And feel old and alone again the next day

Heroic rum general, gin on permanent supply
The desires of a child who has come out the other end
Adulthood was a space between two phases of immature covetousness

His skin turned blue and the gin and tonic felt like love
The heart warmed itself by breaking all the furniture
One for the retired civil servant, one for the still working geriatric
And one for the illusion that your type of being alive is as important as a thirty year old's type of being alive