Tag Archives: sobriety

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Crashing Out

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Missed my appointment for sobriety;

The bus dropped me off at jail.

These official courthouse letters,

Always find me in the mail.

……………………………………

A woman in hijab got on,

Six stops down the line;

I saw my best friend in a tweaker

Who assured me you were doing fine.

……………………………………

I sacrificed my handwriting to tremors;

Vodka makes me gag.

Of every ex who haunts my nightmares;

You’re the own who moves most like my dad

…………………………………..

I saw a dead man OD on the sidewalk,

It has trapped me in a daze;

There are children I will never see again; who I helped raise.

……………………………………

My roommate is resentful.

My mother is concerned.

There’s not a friendship or a bridge inside this town I have not burned.

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Labor Shortage in Omelas

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I will myself to hold the taste of this failure in my mouth.
Just one more flavor my white parents did not know how to cook with.

I smother the bitterness of asparagus and your contempt in garlic and white wine.

if god where my dinner guest;

He would ask me which brown woman we owed for tonight’s spice blend;
He would remind me that none of us have ever lived anywhere but Omelas;
He would remember how the acid of the lemon juice cut through the grease and your vitriol.

There is no violence or abuse
This sous chef pretending to be a line cook; did not teach me how to plate.

Salt. Fat. Acid.
I have always held my own magic.