The verse of Keith J.

 

Liqueur Tokay

Why We Drink Alcohol

I felt a little frail on Sunday morning

The mouth was like a bird cage when I woke

Couldn’t lift my head up for the agony

I thought at first I’d had a bloody stroke

But I was firing on all six at bedtime

Can’t imagine how I got that way

Could it be I’d got the equine influenza

Then the penny dropped, liqueur tokay !!

My mate’s back from a trip to Rutherglen

Reckons that  it’s liquid gold, this stuff

Complementary to the mints and coffee

So is it any wonder I feel rough

Pre dinner started with a beer or couple

Possibly it was three or maybe four

Just to get the gastric juices flowing

Anyhow, no one was keeping score

Then when the entrées came along

We had to make a switch

To a South Australian cabernet

Or shiraz, I can’t tell which

Though one thing was for certain

It’s colour was clearly red

By the time main course was over

We’d put another three to bed

Dessert of course were crepes suzettes

With a bottle of botrytis sticky

Well, stickies comes in half bottles

So, ok we had two bottles - picky

Which is about where I came in

With that glass of liqueur tokay

I shouldn’t touch the bloody stuff

I’m bound to learn some day

 

Scientists with their grey dust coats

And immeasurable IQ’s

Determine most emphatically

From the data they peruse

That the water we should always

Drink a litre of each day

Contains Escherichia coli

That’s E Coli so they say

Which is a nasty old bacteria

Most commonly found in faeces

Dumped randomly in the waterways

By the wonderful human species

So when we drink that daily litre

Instead of, lets say, wine

Those boogies are deposited

In our lower intestine

Triggering gastroenteritis

That may last for days and days

Thereby dumping more E Coli

Into our waterways

In the course of every twelve months

With that litre every day

It’s fact a fact that every one of us

Will put three pounds of shit away

But alcohol on the other hand

Whether whiskey, wine or beer

Is subject to purification

Unlike water, most severe

The fermentation for example  

Of the grape is guaranteed

To make that nasty e coli

Look for elsewhere to breed 

So we who live on alcohol

Sometimes babble verbal shit

But unlike water drinkers

We won’t be full of it

 

A Smidge Thanks

Serious About Golf
 

I see your glass is empty

Some more red wine for you

Followed by her coy reply

Yes please, a smidge will do

Was that a smidge I hear her say

What can that possibly be

A metric measurement perhaps

Spelling out precise degree

I’ve never really come to grips

With all this metric crap

Describe someone as six foot six

Well, you’re talking a big chap

But if the cops seek out a miscreant

Described in centimeters tall

Is it a giant they look for

Or someone really small

Or if the weather bureau says

We had thirty ml of rain

I wouldn’t have a single clue

How much went down the drain

When next the glass is empty

The mystery shall intensify

Another glass of red my dear ?

A tiny smidge is her reply

A smidge I thought was miniscule

Dwarfed by the knees of bees

But a tiny smidge would indicate

That a smidge comes in degrees

Close observation then reveals

In surprise much more than sorrow

A smidge of red wine disappears

Like there is no tomorrow

The speed of its departure

Forms your conclusion that

A smidge is anywhere between

A thimble and a vat

So a smidge of wine it would appear

Is a purely relative measure

Depending how much is required

To induce euphoric pleasure

When next your bibulous partner

Says a smidge will do just fine

She’s giving you the go ahead

To fill it to the plimsoll line

 

There were four serious golfers

As long as anyone could remember

Every mid week competition

From January through December

They would assemble on the first tee

Throw the balls up to decide

A four ball partner for the day

And play for money on the side

No matter what sort of weather

Mother Nature chose to throw

Rain or hail or tempest blast

The intrepid four would show

Halfway through the round this day

The competition’s tense and tight

When down the nearby thoroughfare

A hearse looms into sight

Followed by a line of mourners

The cortege slowly wends its way

Towards the local cemetery

To send the dear departed away

One pauses in his backswing

Puts his driver on the tee

Removes his hat and quietly stands

With his head bowed solemnly

When the final car had disappeared

He addressed his ball, eyes full of tears

Funerals bother you asked his partner

No, but we were married for fifty years

 

In Vino Veritas
 

The Four Legged Chicken
 

They gather every Monday night, come rain or hail or shine

Drawn by a close affinity to the product of the vine

They hold it up against the light to gargle, sniff and sip

Marvelling at the tannins or acerbic acid grip

The clichés fall like raindrops from these wine aficionados

A complex blend of fruit and oak, sweaty saddles on the nose

Mouldy, musty, earthy, cassis , vanilla, cherry, oak

Acetic acid, wet sheep dog, wine snobbery is no joke

A vibrant youthful red tinged with a purple hue

A long and fruity finish, when “yuk” or “yum” would do

A hollow middle palate or a spicy fruit bouquet

Although they can’t distinguish twixt shiraz and cabernet

Sometimes guess the maker from the subtleties of the grape ?

Rubbish, they just fluked it or they know the bottle shape

Express disdain if it’s not red to Russell’s mild dismay

As feline micturition they dismiss the chardonnay

When comes they time to pick the best their choices are diverse

Some may opt a simple donkey vote or others the reverse

Price will be the factor in whatever Brian may choose

Whilst Dion’s nominations will reflect his Marxist views

Only one thing is for certain in their judgment’s erudite

They will mostly spot the difference between wines red or white

 

I  Stopped to visit years ago

A farmer mate I used to know

And driving down  the farmhouse track

I was taken, as they say, aback

When I saw a chicken running free

The sight of which fair gobsmacked me

Chickens aren’ t that rare it must be said

But this one was a quadruped

Dollar signs transformed my eyes

With visions of Kentucky fries

I thought what might the Colonel pay

For flocks of chickens built this way

I asked the farmer, tell me mate

How did this feathered freak mutate

He said  from my experimentation

With genetic modification

Of the genes to isolate

The one from which legs emanate

Do you realise what you’ve done I said

This could be bigger than sliced bread

Think what this find of yours will bring

To Coq au vin or a la king

I asked how do those drumsticks taste

When cooked with a nice red wine baste

He sadly said stuffed if I know

Can’t catch the little so and so

 

 

Keith Jones

11/8/2003

 

A Retirement Poem courtesy of another Old Fart Retired Person, thanks Keith.

BRIAN'S PULLED THE PLUG
 

"Survival of the Fittest"
 

Brian has quit the workforce
Retired, the old poor fella
With bugger all to do all day
But sit alone in his wine cellar
With time upon his hands
Its so plain to you and me
He'll crack a Petaluma
At 10 am for morning tea
And as its nearly lunchtime
When Petaluma hits the deck
An Old Block or a St Henri
He's retired, what the heck
And around mid afternoon
He'll thirst for chardonnay
Or semillon or chenin blanc...
Naa, life's too short, no way!!


By now he's cooking dinner
So he'll need a little kick
Perhaps Warrabilla Durif
17.5% should do the trick
When Andrea gets home
Not a word she'll understand
After a day of quality control
He'll be babbling short hand
The problem with retirement
It marks that watershed
When sharing half a doona
Amounts to being good in bed
Testosterone, once a given
Has disappeared somewhere
Want it long & stiff and hard?
Try toe nails and nasal hair


Retirement's about planning
Brian will have to time his run
To shuffle off this mortal coil
When the cellar's down to one
A red matures for many years
Though sadly to relate
If Brian had been a bold shiraz
He'd be past the use-by date
And finally some good advice
For him to contemplate
Don't pass a toilet, trust a fart
And never waste an erection
mate !!
 

 

Old Charlie Darwin was a clever thinker in his day
An his theory on survival was one, I have to say
That seems to make a lot of common sense in retrospect
About the mechanism employed by Mother Nature to select
The strongest of a species whose genes may then survive
To ensure only the best and fittest propagate and thrive


Take the Wildebeest of Africa, a large and yummy beast
 Most favoured by the predators when looking for a feast
But the Wildebeest has sharpish horns and hard feet with which to kick
So the lions, not being stupid, prey on the disabled, weak and sick
Therefore the smart and fit and strong go merrily on their way
To produce a better model Wildebeest to fight another day
So I'm pouring down a vat of red at home the other night
When like a flash it hit me "Charles Darwin got it right"


Ever notice when you've had a belly full of red , or even beer!!
Your mind is like a steel trap and your thinking sharp and clear
Because alcohol is a predator that wipes out the odd brain cell
But selectively like the lioness, only those that aren't that well
Hence what the red wine leaves behind is much better than before
Like the Wildebeest unencumbered by the sickly, weak and poor
If you don't believe me take a note next time you've had a few
How you're funnier and smarter than the normal boring you
You pour out profound monologues to an audience you enthrall
On esoteric topics about which you actually know sod all
Your humour, it is unsurpassed, you will laugh at anything
Dean Martin trapped inside you breaks out and you can sing !!
You have a grasp of cricket that can't be matched by anyone
If you'd been there instead of Ponting, Australia would have won


So we salute you Mister Darwin for all those clever things you said
And for giving us, as if we needed it, another reason to drink red

Keith