Love is like drinking champagne in a Paris café,
you don't order it but you get it anyway so then
you sip it and it is good and yes, you like it.

So you taste it and it sparkles and from the outside
it looks so good, so you drink some more and you
begin to feel it and feeling dizzy you drink some
more.

Soon all is a mad swirl and everything looks so
different and you are happy-- you laugh and
then you get a little sick and you feel a pain and
you cry and your head aches.

You are sorry that you drank the stuff and you
swear that you will never touch it again but
after awhile you become used to it and hardened
to it.

You find that you like it and drink and drink
until finally you can go through with it
without a mar and you are called a toper.
                                                                          Jon York    2017

mar: damage, wreck, deface, deform, blight, blot, spoil, scar, stain,
toper: drink alcohol to excess, habitually