Recovery

I am so happy that I can cry

Now that I am human

I’m so glad to be among the living

Not cast away among the soulless

How joyous to feel pain

To suffer gladly

Because it means life

Courses through my veins and soul

So close to now, to the eternal

But actually getting to live

On the journey

How joyous these days

Spent as a conscience being

How sad for the many

Who are walking dead

Not living just breathing

I once was with them

Drowning myself in the mundane
And the liquid

Pretending it was all important

The details
The liquid

When it is us who are important

I’m glad I can see life

For it’s beauty and its pain

To live it on its terms
With the help of others
People learning to swim life's waters
Daily

Thank you

(While this poem is about surviving alcohol abuse, the first two lines  were spoken by a Holocaust survivor.)

Dedicated to my friend Kevin L.