WHEN IT'S BEST TO DRINK ALONE. By Bradford Middleton

It's happened again as the time spent at bars

Dwindles to the point where I contemplate

Just giving up, maybe visit only once a week

To drown this lonely existence surrounded

By other people by way of a change.  Of late

Though it is these other people that have

Caused the most damage to my mind leaving

Me demanding more booze to drown out

Their existences as I struggle through dreaming

Of sitting at home alone, smoking the

Proverbial weed and very occasionally

Treating myself to a drink but not through

Need or habit just for the pure simple joy

Of cracking that bottle open and taking a taste

Loving it as it cascades down my throat.

The other night I went out, alone as usual,

And found myself in one of those moods,

Dark, foreboding, wanting to get annihilated

The only people I spoke to were bar staff

All of whom knew my name and asked how

I'd been, handing over drink after drink until

That point where I could face no more, a time

Spent surrounded by useless hipsters, bearded

Fucktards who annoy me greatly, and if it

Weren't for the smoke I'd have ended up

Leaving a hell of a lot quicker and walking

The streets dreaming of bars where the drinks

Flow cheaper and there are no immaculate

Beards requesting craft beers looking down

On me as I sit, beer and chaser at the ready.

Bradford Middleton was born in south-east London during the summer of 1971 and won his first poetry prize at the age of nine.  He then gave up writing poems for nearly twenty-five years and it wasn't until he landed in Brighton, knowing no one and having no money, that he began again.  Ten years later and he's been lucky enough to have had a few chapbooks published including a new one from Analog Submission Press entitled 'Flying through this Life like a Bottle Battling Gravity', his debut from Crisis Chronicles Press (Ohio, USA) and his second effort for Holy & Intoxicated Press (Hastings, UK).  He has read around the UK at various bars, venues and festivals and is always keen to get out and read to new crowds.  His poetry has also been or will be published shortly in the Chiron Review, Zygote in my Coffee, Section 8, Razur Cuts, Paper & Ink, Grandma Moses 'Poet to Notice', Empty Mirror, Midnight Lane Gallery, Bareback Lit and is a Contributing Poet over at the wonderful Mad Swirl.  If you like what you've read go send a friend request on facebook to bradfordmiddleton1.