The Periodic Table of Mixology

by David Davies

Beginning at the top left                           with the lighter liquids, 
inert cordials and tinctures                    few free electrons,
so next day it’s hard to be sure                   that you indulged at all.

Next, into the common elements of cocktails, widespread across the spiral arms and bottled in all places in-between. Lustrous drams of buoyant nuclei, reactive to mixers from a million worlds, aperitifs in alkali or acid, whatever excites your palate.

Drink on down through the halogens, salt forming on the rims of glass, numbers atomic and alcoholic rising as we work along this stocked shelf.

Deeper still, dark liquors that weigh down the mood and breath, found exclusively in shady bars that orbit dying stars. Lanthanides, shedding their neutrons to kill off the neurons, served in finest lead-lined crystal, recommended only for those with self-restorative biologies.

Now at the bottom, in the realm of the true connoisseur, digestifs that don’t exist in nature, that degrade like decency in tenth-of-a-second shots—the half-life of inhibitions.

A nightcap? Sip on caramel-colored actinides barely liquid at room temperature. One for the road as you slip under the table and wobble off wondering if gravity is askew here, hoping this world has a slow spin to keep the morning after far away.

🜁🜄🜂🜃

David Davies (he/him) is a first-generation immigrant to Texas, and has been writing since he left home in Somerset, England. His stories and poems have appeared in diverse places, including Rise Up Review, Granfalloon, Green Lantern Press and The Other Side Of Hope. His books include "Shadow Atlas" published by Hex Publishers, and "Sir David and the Green Card" published by Wipf & Stock. He is the recipient of a 2022 Colorado Book Award and has twice won the King Edward Prize for Youth Poetry.