THREE SHEETS TO THE WIND - Poem

 

THREE SHEETS TO THE WIND

(Copyright 2017, by Dave Kiffer)

One of my father's sayings,

Always used to describe

Someone else, who was

Having trouble getting around

 

Someone who imbibed

Immoderately, another phrase

That Dad would pull out

With the ease of a magician

 

As if he was flourishing

The other guy’s weakness

For all of us to admire,

A drunk rabbit from a hat

 

Dad was very rarely

Three sheets to the wind

A highly functional drunk

Who consumed more

 

In a day, than most men

Did in a week, a serious

Drinker who called New

Year's Eve "amateur night"

 

But what is "three sheets?"

Something about a bed?

The more sheets you need

The drunker you are?

 

Is it something we

Measure in thread count?

As if it could lead to

A much softer fall?

 

No, it's about sailing,

That wonderous gust

When your life rises

On step and flies

 

 

 

Or so it seems when

You are three sheets,

Either to the wind

Or simply your breath

 

But the sheets are

Not sails to luff

In the alcoholic chaos

Of the last, last call

 

The sheets are ropes

To hold the sails fast

To keep you from flopping

About in the roiling wind

 

Three Sheets to the Wind

Is that stage where you

Would grasp for help, if only

You knew where it was

 

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