PROMISE
Sometimes
the greatest talent
is just putting one foot
in front of the other.
How do you tell
a child
her father
gave up
eating a bullet.
Or his mother
a bottle of pills
closed her eyes?
I swam laps
in oceans of vodka
backflips into cheap wine
I despaired in my world
where everything crumbled
nothing made sense and
I almost became the Monster.
Almost.
I stepped into the Abyss
but crawled back.
Others reading
will assume stereotypes
and that’s all right
I hope you know
in time
what that meant.
You already know
what
but not why.
