The neon glow
Shines upon us
As we sit belly to bar.
The lot of us conversing
But none of us
Are listening.
We talk just to
Break the hovering silence.
It's the silence that
Leads to thinking
And that leads to reality.
And the reason we are here
In the first place
Is to stay
The fuck away
From that.

(John Murray)

Whiskey Wisdom, #113
If there's wisdom in whiskey, I've not found it;
Just stupor and forgetfulness inside.
But also happiness—no way around it;
There's bliss in that amber, Lethean tide.

An unexamined life's not worth the living,
Said Socrates, who faced death without fears;
It's true, but my exam is more forgiving
of foibles and failures after three beers.

Oh give me booze instead of introspection,
Distill my doubts in bottles, not in verse;
Abet me in this rational deflection
And, if not better, things will be no worse--

Now there's a truth, sunk in this G & T,
Greater than dreamed in your philosophy.


(Scott Standridge)