Life In Peace Time

Alcohol is like many a substance,
it makes a good servant and a horrible master.
To make the best of their choices
imbibers have to know themselves
inside out, to learn which they are
-unhappy servers or well served?
Those that avoid asking, out of fear,
have already made their choice plain.
Furthermore they will always create
in their dependents a bleaker sense
of humour and hope than ever
they dare to imagine.

Not that a communal life
without substances is temptation free.

If Winston Churchill had been asked
'Which causes does alcohol serve best?'
He would have answered 'War and government'.
Where this leaves the life of the masses
in the long domestic peace since 1945,
with so many outlets for drink
and so little for imbibers to rule over
is beyond hope and guesswork.