18

a sudden reprieve
wellness and shiny possibility
a new start

sober and healing in some small way
released from the VA hospital
blackbird flies
he zooms to me
old trans am
Steve Miller cassette
birthday wishes
sweet sixteen

case of beer
driving under the influence
driving without a license
assaulting an officer
jail then
ten long minutes from my home

I don't visit

I could not forgive
I would never hope again
I was gifted a poetic failure
happy birthday
a movie moment waiting for him to arrive
a cinematic phone call
accepting charges I heard
as he cried his apologies into the surprise of unsurprised ears
as he blamed the cops 
and the beer 
and the car

I'd never seen such tragedy up close before

It is grittier and more potent than the cinema would have you believe
in the movies there's an easy pressure as our heroine is consumed
a navigable slope
sliding flawlessly into the final heartbreak

on this day there were teeth
I heard the tearing
but then darkness and it was done