from American Rhapsody
Invocation/Intoxication
Oak barrels, hops and yeasty brew.
Answer the door for merrymakers
rushing to get sozzled,
tasty booze
flowing from kegs, basement jugs.
In bathtubs, in stills --
poteen, bathtub gin,
moonshine, apple jack, mountain dew,
sacramental wine --
Blue skies smiling at me
bottles emptied, thrown on garbage heaps from
nightclubs, saloons and speakeasies
gin mills, whoopee parlors
new generation of moneymakers roaring
their Twenties.
It’s here at last! Now for a new era of clean thinking and
clean living. The Anti-Saloon League wishes every man,
woman and child a Happy Dry Year, and a share of the
fruits of prosperity which are bound to come with
National Prohibition.
On our side of the Hudson
across from the big time
racketeers, past the Hoovervilles
beneath the Pulaski Skyway,
on bays and inlets of the New Jersey shore
The Prohibition high seas operation
transported cases
of Haig & Haig, Piper Heidsieck, Booth’s Gin
from England, France, Scotland
to St. Etienne, Canada and on
to just beyond
the twelve mile limit off Sandy Hook
the New Jersey Rum Runway
where men transferred
them from fast skiffs to a fleet
of World War I Mack Bulldog trucks.
Nothing but blue skies do I see
in my intoxication,
the cocktail and I are born.
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