Friends of Bill W.

[LeftWriteFemme]

April 11


BIRDS & BEES


Birds and bees can get me drunk. I have to watch the amount of envy which pours through me as I watch their wondrous bliss. When others make a bee-line to the hive, I must head to a meeting and save myself despair if my spiritual condition is not sound. When other couples are weaving their nests, I have to be careful not to weave my way back to the bar. The mating dance is so sweet and seductive; I have to make sure I don’t end up doing the two step. For as much as I hate to admit it, if steps one and twelve where enough to keep me sober, the rest would not have needed to be written.


Pad barefoot through intention.

*

Neither Frog nor Fish

I was falling
and my Higher Power caught me
in a net called AA,
all of which was a pretty neat trick,

But the strangest consequence of this
is now I somehow think it shouldn’t be possible
for me to drown.

Defying gravity 24 hours at a time
doesn’t make me aquatic
or even amphibious for that matter.

I still have all the corollary restrictions
of anyone who is me.
I still need sleep and water,
food and warmth just like a mere mortal.

How silly I am.
I dodge a bullet
and suddenly I think I am waterproof.



You are reading selections from Sober on the Way to Sane and More Lines From My Life by Sherrie Theriault