I never used to like whisky

I used to hate the taste of whisky
if I was offered some I'd pause before I drank it
like I was about to break bad news.
As it trickled down I'd grimace

like receiving a letter from the taxman.
I couldn't stand the taste of whisky.
I still had my milk teeth. Alcopops and Becks
whisky was for jazz clubs and widowers

but those student days are over
and more and more I feel like a nervous kitten
in the cattery, flinching at the slightest movement
and then one day I came home from work

opened the whisky I'd been given three Christmases ago
and glugged it down like Appletize.
Things changed that day.
Well actually the day before.