How to

How to

How to ask you to stop drinking

Let me count the ways

Instinct tells me to lead with a joke

Sidle up next to you in the garden whilst your having a smoke

Ask for a toke

Say “why couldn’t you have got onto something simple eh, like coke?”

You laugh

It gets silent

Nah can’t segue into serious shit from that

If this didn’t matter to me maybe I could

But it does, and I know I’ll struggle to get the words out

—

How to ask you to stop drinking

Soften you by going back a ways

Ask if you remember ‘those days’ whenever those days were

Back before all this even started

When the seeds of now were sewn

Before we packed up the family home and in separate ways we parted

Something about that time left you broken hearted

And the seeds began to grow

And I get it

I write all this shit down that’s how I forget it

—

How to ask you to stop drinking

Let me count the ways

It’s pretty clear now that you’ve seen better days

And there’s not many on the horizon so I feel I should get involved

Break the mould

Cos we don’t talk about serious shit much

And I know you see that as a touch

But if it causes you to use alcohol as a crutch

Then that’s a problem

—

How to ask you to stop drinking

Let me count the ways

Could tell you there’s a limit on your days

Go in hard about how you can’t drink your life away

But we all know you can, so that’s bollocks

Could plead

To be honest, that’s how I want to lead

Go against my creed and just bleed my feelings out to you at speed

But nah that scares people

But it is a scary situation

Have I recommended meditation?

—

I can’t say I blame you,

you were groomed

How many times did we hear Mum or Dad say ‘same again?’ at the grubby pub table, to any revolving cast of aunts, uncles and acquaintances

Little did we know that as we were bedding into our addictions they’d be concluding their’s in a hospice down the road

How many times were we rattled home in pushchairs at half one in the morning

through lamplit town streets, a novelty to passing drunks and loitering teenagers

Until I was in my mid-twenties I thought all barbecues were a 12 hour-long affair starting at midday and declining into loud screams and tears in the deep blue night

You didn’t see anyone get lamped,

brothers fighting over slurred words

Maybe if you did that would have turned you off it

Although I doubt it, it was about the most exciting thing I’d see for the next four years in that dead end town

—

How to ask you to stop drinking

Let me count the ways

I want to tell you that I love you

And that although I understand the wash of good vibes that settles nerves, taut like wire, at the end of a long and pointless day

Although I see the joy and excitement, life’s two propelling forces, dwell within you after a Sauvignon blanc

I look at the mess around you, spiralling

And I can’t stop thinking about it

—

We both know that I’ve said all of these things and none of them, before

It’s up to you

The ache of the conscience against the urge of the drink

And tonight strangers will hear these crucial words meant for you

So if anyone here sees you, can they please pass it on

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