Lay for the Day 24th January

1935: the first canned beer, Krueger Cream Ale from the Gottfried Krueger Brewery of Newark, New Jersey, goes on sale in Richmond, Virginia.

Can

Buckled on crates
in a doorway,
he holds a can
up to his grey

disordered face.
Constant chewing
movement but no
words ensuing,

no gabble nor
mutter. Like Yeats,
his countryman,
he contemplates

world’s busyness;
instead of pierced
hare’s collarbone,
a can of beer.

John Gibbens
from Characters: You & I

 

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