Ode to Being Drunk
Shaun Mitchell

I have enough sense in me to know I am drunk,
Yet I feel compelled to write a verse about this state of mind.
Please forgive the free verse, in which I write,
It is much like Walt Whitman, a homo in his own right.

I am a college student.
I am an English major.
I am a little drunk right now and I want to express the feelings one gets from
being inebriated.  (I can’t believe I spelled that right.)

Dizziness takes over the body,
A state of resurrection takes hold of my two decades.
Will I change my ways tomorrow?
Will I be the same?

Fate remains a friend of mine while I write this ditty.
Although modern it may sound, historical it has in heart.
I will teach the greatness of writers long past.
I will teach the world to sing in perfect harmony.

My roommate sleeps with a loud noise in his mouth, a
And I feel tempted to put a sock in it.
He remains the worst part of life,
And for that I remain content in thinking about the future with Brian.

Housing sucks as much as a newborn sucks a nipple,
Because I already lost much over it, and lose more still, I shall.
It is sad, but still a reality of life. 
Life is a series of hello’s and goodbye’s…

I don’t want to sleep because I fear I will never wake,
And for that reason I do not drink very often.
In college, though, drinking becomes a pastime,
Like baseball in America.

We do it to escape.
We do it to be free.
America is the land of the free.
And free is what we shall be.

Maybe I should write more when I feel this way. 
Maybe I should be the man of the hour.
Maybe I should stop this junk.
Maybe I should hold the power.

This may be the longest poem I write,
And my life will agree.
For I am no poet,
Just a college student living the college life.

Inspiration comes in many ways,
In which I cannot always see.
Be open to the world,
And the world will come to thee.

You may ask why I type so perfectly,
If I am to be drunk.
It’s all a state of mind, I say,
As is all life, accordingly.

A state of mind for you and me,
It’s what life remains to be.
Take it as you may,
But take it you will.

I take life with a sense of humor to douse the pain,
And I remain a believer in true love, true blue, and hard rain.
I try to rhyme and make sense,
But my life remains something to climb, much like a fence.

I study all day and night until my eyes go crossed,
I study what I can for my professors great and bad.
I learn what I can, and I take all I need,
In the end, though, it is what remains in your heart that stays and breeds.

These four lines can’t prove a thing,
Just that I am a college student finding a way to escape.
I chose movies over the clichéd alcohol usually,
But tonight, well, tonight, my perspective changed a tad.

It is a rite of passage to swig down some beer,
Every college kid does it just for the fear.
The fear of being a prude.
The fear of being wrong.

Take away the fear and be the human you are inside.
Be the best that you can be,
And if drinking remains that person,
Then that person you shall be.

I remain a good citizen,
Whom obeys the laws of this sweet campus.
Was I really drunk,
Or really an observer?

That you shall never know unless you are five,
The five that remain in my heart,
As the people who believed in me.
Someone should always have somebody to believe in them.

And if you don’t, then I will,
Because that is the American way.
American I am,
American I will stay.

So on those nights that you feel compelled to drink,
Think about me dear friend,
The one who always thinks,
For I will show you the way until the bitter end.

Maybe one day I will write to you again,
About my woes and my heartache.
Perhaps about being American,
And about our American way.

Being drunk is not for everyone,
And although curiosity gets the best of us,
Remain the individual you are,
Because in the end, the individual is all you have.

 

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