A Drunkard’s Wish

If beer and liquor walked and talked and breathed,
then maybe these, for once, could feel the pain
of all who’ve ever sickened, suffered, seethed
in that from which we somehow can’t refrain.

If drinks could live to feel the hell they wreak
on body, soul, relationship and mind,
then they would know the straits of us, the weak,
and we would dole the suffering in kind.

If alcohol, just once, could share our plight,
we’d brutalize in turn this parasite.