Sidetracked Brewery

Down South Green Street where the road dips

Into the flowing traffic of Sterling

Like a tributary to a river run wrong

I have come sober

To take a seat at the long granite bar

Fresh streaked with the ringed remnant wash of

Finished drinks downed

Among strangers, some friends

Do I know you?

We’ve drank a time or two.

May I sit?

May I sit among gears forever stalled

By the test of time, all stop

Below strung domes of supplicant light

That draw us moth to flame

Where ribboned medals hang from a pipe

Twisting in the unseen current

Near railroad ties that once spiked

Connected lands upon lands

Now uprooted and plied

That they might tilt and pour forth

A golden flood, amber streams, dark waters

We drink and drink up

All they will bring us, crisp fruit, thick malt

Born in corner tanks, silos where

Time, patience, temperature

Turn earthen materials a wild liquid

Like the stories of old

Raised by the hands and imagination

Of a father, artist, maker of drink

We have come to sample your master brew

Through the murmur of deep conversation

And hazy pleasantries

Empty glasses clink as they are taken and cleaned

Final remains slush down the side faint as sea foam

Will you have another?

I’ve got to go, got to go...yes.

Pour on, let me sip of my favorite

And forget my day as I sit here

Once more

Sidetracked