Sit Down And Have A Beer Again

Poetry, smoetry. The last poetry book I read that I liked was Shel Silverstein’s Where the Sidewalk Ends because, well, who doesn’t? But when I saw the title of this book, my interest was piqued. Why is the author telling me to sit down and have a beer? What is in this book that goes with beer?

Sit Down, Have a Beer is not for the faint of heart. But if you like blunt, sometimes gross, sometimes scary, sometimes too-real stories, then this is the book for you. Most of the book is poetry and just good storytelling that will make you either chuckle or roll your eyes. I am a girl who likes guy humor, so I found great humor in poems like “The Pubic Hair Blues,” which was about three guys living with one woman (poor thing) and her telling them what she wants:

“i want the crud

& the public hairs

cleaned up

before I get in

that tub.”

There are also some poems in the book that were both true and non-PC. “Kids,” for example, is about how the author doesn’t like kids because what he sees are:

a future drunk

a future mass murderer

a future computer programmer

a future soldier

a future mortician

a future highway fatality

a future child molester

a future corporate exec

a future wife beater

a future junkie

a future Nixon

even a future asshole”

Kind of depressing, no? But so very true as well. I also liked less morbid poems such as “Metamorphosis,” where a guy wakes up to find out he is a hamburger, “Paranoia,” with its little green men and the author freaking out about not having a gun even though he doesn’t know how to use one, “Just Thinking About,” a poem about life and how to keep the fridge full and the landlord off his case, and of course, “Survival” in which you:

take the number of times

they can knock you down

subtract the number of times

you can get back up

if the answer

is zero

you still have a chance”

Makes perfect sense to me!

The last third of the book is an excerpt from the author’s novel, When Life Was Like a Cucumber which is about “a young man’s journey of self-discovery and sexual awakening as he tries to find his place post-Sixties America.” The excerpts were really interesting, to say the least, and I found myself wanting to know what happened next with each short story. I may need to grab a copy to see if I can find out what happened to Charles Darwin.

This book is witty and gritty and a whole lot of fun. I recommend it to people who like a little dirty humor and understand what real life is as opposed to the sugar-coated ones on social media. Cheers, and enjoy!