April is Alcohol Awareness Month: Part II

Each April since 1987, the National Council on Alcohol and Drug Dependence, Inc. has sponsored Alcohol Awareness Month to “increase public awareness and understanding, reduce stigma, and encourage local communities to focus on alcoholism and alcohol-related issues.”

Denial of being an alcoholic is commonplace. The alcoholic will deny it for years. Families will deny that other family members are alcoholic or have serious drinking-related problems. Many times the alcoholic will have friends or family members who enable them. An enabler, or codependent, is someone who helps a person with substance abuse issues continue to use drugs and/or alcohol. I come from three generations of alcohol abusers. My grandfather, father, myself, and my siblings have suffered from and continue to suffer from alcohol problems.

These three poems on drinking are my way of communicating about alcohol awareness.

Turning a Page on Alcohol
(First published in the Saipan Tribune on Oct. 21, 2022)

The first time you got drunk what was your age
If you looked at yourself what was your image
Were you with your friends at a teenage stage
Is that when you began regular alcohol usage
Did you grow older drinking more and more
Always having some more booze in storage
Always driving to the cheapest liquor store
With a few cases of beer still in your garage
You got a beer belly now, a tiger in your tank
Vomiting and blacking out every now and then
Waking up with a headache your mind a blank
Not a sober day since you can’t remember when
Have you had enough booze at your present age
Thinking about saying no and turning the page.

Drank Drunk Drinking Rap (04/12/2023)

Here are the last four lines of a haunting, beautiful Irish ballad called Carrickfergus. The song, which has been recorded many times, was my inspiration for the following sonnet rap:
“I’m drunk today and I’m rarely sober
A handsome rover from town to town.
Oh but I am sick now and my days are numbered
Come all ye young men and lay me down.”

Drank too much – Don’t know why
It wasn’t a chore – Easily done
Lost my touch – With reality
Will drink no more – Not much fun

Drunk again the next day – What can I say
For no reason but fun – With friends galore
The buzz went away – What cost did I pay
Before I was done – Boozed up for sure

Drinking all day long – On into the night
What is that all about – Just can’t seem to stop
Singing some old song – Can’t get words right
Remember blacking out – Puking no doubt

I’m drunk drank too much – Its nothing new
Drinking heavy losing touch – More often and you?

The Old Sot and The Old Sod
(an Irish American reverie)

If I should pass out think but this of me
that there’s a small corner of this old pub
that is forever Ireland and will surely be
a place you can eat some decent pub grub
outside is Ireland the sot dreams aware
he’s back there in his drunken present state
tasting Irish cheese and eating Irish fare
beer washes down a corned beef cabbage plate
he’ll have one more pint drink it right away
a drop now of Tullamore Dew no less
takes him back his thought by Ireland given
earphones sing harps and elbow pipes today
his heart at peace now in Irish heaven.

(Revised. Original was first published in the Saipan Tribune on March 16, 2018.)