Endowed in perpetuity by the Glenna Luschei Fund for Excellence

I Feel Drunk All the Time

I Feel Drunk All the Time

By Kenneth Patchen

Jesus, it’s beautiful!
Great mother of big apples, it is a pretty
World!

You’re a bastard, Mr. Death,
And I wish you didn’t have no look-in here.

I don’t know how the rest of you feel,
But I feel drunk all the time

And I wish to hell we didn’t have to die.

Oh, you’re a nervy bastard, Mr. Death,
And I wish you didn’t have no hand in this game

Because it’s too damn beautiful for anybody to die.

Prairie Schooner, Vol. 18, No. 4 (Winter 1944), p. 253

Biography

Kenneth Patchen

Kenneth Patchen was a largely self-taught and hugely prolific poet, novelist, and playwright.

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