February 8
ACCIDENT OF BIRTH
We are here together, born the millstones about one
another’s necks. Parentage equates to
persuasion and I hold these strangers to my breast. Minds having chosen, violent turns skew off
radar’s blip. I am held by guilt’s tight
sutures to this motley mass. I long for
the freedom of birds to fly far from my nest mates. Possessing sense enough not to neighbor with
owners of my same genetic skin, I dream to be a turtle of the sea and meet each
other in neutral waterways, friends for seasons of choice, far from the family
shore. Accidents brought us
together. Let kindness emancipate us.
Test your mind
with poetry.
*
From Pen to Progress
“Leave those gaters in the paddock
awhile longer,” said my sponsor.
I gave a little better than a cursory glance
at the hulking forms
though I did stay strictly on my side of the fence
and grasped tighter the hand of my custodian.
The onceover, worked fine as my first pass through
the creatures of the
swamp,
I didn’t fully grasp what lay beyond the petting zoo,
but given my newness this wasn’t entirely a bad thing.
On second run I was in a boat
with a glass bottom and a guide, I had vision, clarity.
Third time through was a charm,
swim fins and a rope tied about my waist,
it was all too real.
I floundered and had to be hauled bodily
by my home group, my sponsor stood anchor.
I have numbered and charted these murky waters now
and I see the lure they have for my ailing, twisted mind;
The intensity of the brutes awash
and the dark calling to dark
makes that sick sense that only an alcoholic can parse.
I have to take to those byways
with supplies and reinforcements.
Never swim alone!
You are reading selections from Sober on the Way to Sane
and More Lines From My Life by Sherrie Theriault
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