Let One Cup Push the Other Along

In Alcaeus or Li Bai,
Anyone since or between,
The drinking poem was never

About only alcohol
But always about escape,
With wine its temporary,

Albeit inadequate,
Means. For wine, read soma, prayer
To a compassionate god,

Some delirious vision.
Still works. The cry of the song
Is to say, let’s turn our backs

On the suffering rising
Inevitably to drown
Us—let us drown ourselves first.