Why Everything I Drink Reminds Me Of You

I started being reminded of people who had once played crucial roles in my life by the simplest of things. Of them, I found drinks to be the most consistent reminders across all of the people that took flight far away from me. This poem came to me at 2 AM when I couldn’t sleep because the words were writing themselves.

How easily your words were to swallow

Reminded me of coffee,

Although sometimes, with my impatience,

I would try to taste you too quickly

And be left with a burnt throat,

You were my morning fix,

And I guess that’s why when I tried to quit you,

The headaches were enough to drive me back.

But you left.

And the jitters come as I try to clench my coffee mug,

Wondering why it won’t suffice,

Why it doesn’t taste the same.

So I went to whiskey, I hear that has some health benefits.

The way it smelled of regrets and empty promises lured me in,

I guess you could say I have a type.

There was no hangover until there was

And the emptiness inside was filled with the liquid I poured down my throat,

An effect your kiss used to have on me.

Eventually, though, my tolerance kicked in and that was an expensive habit.

I tried green tea, but the mint was similar to your breath on my neck

And the shivers my spine so easily displayed when you whispered

Sweet nothings in my ear.

I hear poets drink tea and stare out of windows while they write,

But I can’t find any inspiration

And seem to be writing incoherent sentences on paper.

Perhaps I will try water, but I’m afraid the purity of it will remind me of you.

I know with one sip, I will want to drown myself in it,

Until, like you, it leaves me in a drought.

Featured image via Sandra Molina on Unsplash

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