243 - Tonight's the night I'll stay booze-free and write

Tonight’s the night I’ll stay booze-free and write.
Don’t know ’bout you but drinking slows my mind.
Not smoking’s really helped. I don’t drink quite
As much now as I did before, I find.
But any drink at all still seems to bind
My brain in chains; it strains and puffs and pants
Like some old train chugging uphill, half-blind
(The steam gets in your eyes); a cripple’s dance.
Enough of that! I’ll give myself a chance
To swim down to the seabed where those white
Pearls beckon, truth and beauty both are mined,
And duty’s fed by ruthless gaze, not glance.
And so in clear blue sea I swim tonight,
Not in polluted waters dark with wine.
Sat 5 May 2007