Sober Phobia

[Wildcard]

I've done an edit after five years of deliberation.

I weighed a lot of the suggestions and found more than anything that I had wasted a lot of words to get at the crux of the matter. I trimmed it down a bit; fixed some punctuation; and adjusted some line breaks near the end.

Thanks to everyone who helped me with this back in the day.

Edit

Sober Phobia

I

They don't give you a chip
for being a fucking drunk
no matter how long
your streak lasts.

II

She needed a bracer.
Damn a day with three kids
that make way,
way too much noise.

The children have ascended
into chutes and water slides—
into heaven really, but she plops down
at a picnic table
in Hell.

III

All the negatives clump
together like clinging bits
on a magnet...
glaring at the hopeful others.

Jason takes pills for his back.
Jenna is bi-polar and pro-Xanax.

Someone toddles up
to ask for more sunscreen
...familiar little guy.

IV

The heat is worse
with a dry mouth
and when your head is busting
from the late night
and the bright day.

V

The engine and the road
threaten to drag her under.

Teeth marks
in her tongue
are for strength.

VI

Everyone accounted for—

Almost. Someone
is touching
someone. Barely pays attention
to whom she struck.

A cupboard; a glass;
a freezer; a bottle; and
a searing epiphany
that this is the only time
she feels alive.