Drunk Sonnet 14 - Aislinn Langley

Drunk Sonnet 14, by Daniel Bailey

IF ANYONE KNOWS WHAT IS GOING ON EVER THEN HEY

I AM HERE IT WOULD BE NICE TO TALK SOMETIME

INFOMERCIALS HAVE STARTED AND I KIND OF WANT TO DIE

I’M PRETTY SURE THIS ONE IS ACTUALLY FOR A MORGUE

 

OK SO ACTUALLY IT’S FOR THE BIBLE OR SOMETHING

SO IT’S A COMMERICAL FOR TRYING TO BE HAPPY OR SOMETHING

BUT I AM NOT HAPPY TONIGHT NO I AM NOT JUST HERE

IF HAPPINESS EVER WORKED THEN HOW—I DON’T KNOW

 

HAPPINESS IS A LIZARD IN THE SUNLIGHT GETTING WARM

AND THEN IN THE NIGHT BENEATH A ROCK EATING FLIES

AND SWALLLOWING THE MEAT OF THE TRASH OF THE DIRT

 

AH, SO TONIGHT IS A LITTLE DRUNK AND OK OK OK

THAT IS GOOD SO LET ME BE—THERE IS NO LOVE TONIGHT

GOD IS LIKE BONO—SOME DICKWAD NO ONE WILL EVER MEET OR LIKE

 

This poem is a Petrachan sonnet, made of two related quatrains that form an octet and two related tercets that form a sestet. Most notable about the structure of the sonnet is how unlike a sonnet it is. There is no discernible rhyme scheme or predominant meter, which leaves the poem disjointed, confused and, as the title would suggest, drunk. The octet relates a very specific, yet widely-known feeling. The speaker is wasted, tired, and upset. They feel alone and morbid and see their own fears of death and hopelessness reflected in infomercials. The repetition of "or something" in the fifth and sixth lines emphasizes the speaker's disorientation and confusion, be it a result of their intoxication or some late-night existential crisis. They move on to speculate that "happiness is like a lizard," something that warms you in the day and then abandons you to your own thoughts and solitude when you sit alone at night. Then comes the turn in the last tercet, proclaiming that "that is good so let me be," and acknowledging that times can't always be happy and it's okay to just be sad and cynical at times. Having previously felt bitter about religion, the speaker now gets over this bitterness and even goes so far as to make fun of the warmth and love of religion, calling God "some dickwad no one will ever meet or like."