Ode to beer

Microbrewery Fridays - Jonas Follonier

No chronicle on this Friday, or rather more than a chronicle: an ode. One of several possible poetic forms of praise, the ode can be heroic, celebrating great deeds, or anacreontic, for familiar subjects. It would seem that beer, so familiar, also has some noble status. Let's make way for a hybrid ode in alexandrines.

Let's drink, dear readers, to the madness within us,
The kind of everyday life that doesn't drive us crazy,
A charming in-between, that of the booze,
Eternal girlfriend, eternal naughty girl.

Let's drink to the drink, meta-consumers,
To its consolation, its warm freshness,
A drink for hipsters and proletarians alike,
A drink for outsiders and high-ranking civil servants.

Which means that the good merges with the drunk,
The Grail is close when there's no abuse.
Moving up our moods, down our throats,
Beer is redemptive, it tastes like barley.

Once a sign of the rednecks, bubus are said to be..,
New bearded bobos find their salvation there.
It is said that over hill and dale and sardines
Hidden from view, they dip their lips in it.

It's said that boasting about it is not in the air of the times,
That the age abhors a man of guts.
Whatever! At the bar here, from column to column,
We'll sing its alchemical power endlessly!

Write to the author: jonas.follonier@leregardlibre.com