Lethal Thirst --Ode to a Dead Drunk

How much booze would it take

To drink yourself to death

A shopping-cart-full, like

Nicholas Cage leaving Las Vegas?

How many arrests

With a point three four

Car as smashed as you, against a tree

Ironically, en route from a meeting?

Or cowering behind a dumpster

Bloody and bruised

From falling off your bike

A belly full of mouthwash?

Intervention complied with

Not fully embraced

This time you’ll try harder

Things will be different

This time you get it, you’re confident

Really

But how can you get it

Storming out of rehab

Doing the steps

1-2-3 and out?

Keep coming back

And don’t drink in between

That’s the part that gets you

The hours outside the rooms, isolated and lonely

So many attempts

Swearing off, brave and resolute

The key to freedom just out of reach

Unlocked with willingness

.

Not many “yets” left

Lost your job

Lost your dignity

Your husband, your home

Lost one daughter

She’s young, but smart enough to

Disengage, disgusted

Fueling your self-pity

The other one, so grown up

A born mother

With her own child to raise

She can’t mother you, too

She’s the one who found you

Two weeks before Christmas

Your battle for serenity

Finally won

Theirs just beginning...

This is dedicated to JT, taken in the prime of her life. May she find peace at last.

And let it remind the rest of us that alcoholism is a pernicious disease that wants us DEAD. It is cunning, baffling, powerful, persuasive, and very, very patient. Remember: If you're not working on your recovery, you're working on a relapse!

© 2009 Mighty Mom