Sober Musings

Pickle my mind in something briny,

behold: a Muse that’s laser-shiny.

It’s not a shrink ray.

No, it’s a drink ray.

It doesn’t make you tiny.

It makes your brain all misaligny.


Some guns shoot fire

Or high-tensile wire

This gun’s ordinance?

Alcoholic discordinance.


Some call the blaster “clumsy and random”

Some squads fire ten rifles in tandem,

Some eschew guns and cast flaming bolts

Some stand around open-mouthed, looking like dolts


Some cry “Havoc!” and then let loose

The Krakens of war. Now that’s obtuse:

The Krakens will their foes devour

Then stick around for Happy Hour.


And if they get into the Tequila,

They’ll hug us to death with their pseudopodelia,

And if they get to the Demon Rum,

You’d best flee fast to Kingdom come.


You’ve been at the bar for fourteen days,

With alcohol your mind to braise.

They might hold a trial (in absentia)

To see just how Absinthe’s bent ya.


And still the Muse won’t come ’round

(Though this is the bar where she’s often found.)

The secret’s not in alcohol;

It’s not in anything at all.


Inspiration’s secret home

Is not a palace of glass or chrome.

It can’t be found on any chart

Because it is inside your heart.


But you, my friend, are a heartless thing

Your heart beats from pure spite and sting

You’ll never hear the Muse’s storm

Unless you learn to reform.


…I’m joking, oh, my writer sweet

If you must find a heart to beat

Then please take mine; I have no use for it

I’m not the sort to need a Muse for it.


…Let other writers the Muses seek

And I’ll stay an authorial freak.

This is my design, and my station:

I make words from grim determination.


I wrench these words, still bloody and screaming

Out of nightmares, sharp and gleaming.

I tear these words, with ugly truth

From the misbegotten memories of my youth

I pull words, against their will,

From all those moments I used to fill

With useless things, now long discarded

From a life with which I’m gladly parted.


I write; I think; I make; I read.

And that is really all I need.

My Muse, I’ve found, truly writes best

Howling through my ribs from the cage in my chest.


 


Jeff Mach



 


My name is Jeff Mach (“Dark Lord” is optional) and I build communities and create things. Every year, I put on Evil Expo, the Greatest Place in the World to be a Villain. I also write a lot of fantasy and science fiction.. You can get most of my books right here. Go ahead, pre-order I HATE Your Prophecy“. It may make you into a bad person, but I can live with that.


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Published on September 12, 2020 20:36
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