A New Poem - "Excommunication"

Excommunication

“IT IS ORDERED that the defendant be placed on probation, and the defendant  shall … not consume intoxicants at any time or any place, and not be present in a place  where the sale of alcohol is the major business.”

I was most sad when they said unto me,

Let’s go into the house where ale is poured,

And tenebral, cool spirits flow down free:

For from such houses I have now been barred.

My sin has gated me on every side

From every type of liquid reverence.

The judge’s writ has bound my will and tied

Me to a bleak, unwilling temperance.

When I recall this, I pour out my soul:

For I had gone in with the multitude

To this , or to some other watering hole,

With voice of praise and joyful attitude.

But now the streets are dark; my friends inside

The merry meeting place think not of me.

Communion with them there I’ve been denied,

I’m excommunicated by decree.

Yet in the life to come, I will imbibe

The Beer of beer and sip the Wine of wines,

All glory to the Bartender ascribe,

And worship at that holy pub betimes.

© 2014 – Paul Erlandson