Article voiceover
When I was a drunk, I was poor so I'd buy one can of good beer and drink that first then I'd drink the half- or full case of cheap shit beer that I could afford. When I was a drunk, I'd think of my childhood years when I swore that I'd never become a drunk like my father. But I binge-drank like him. I blacked out like him. I woke in stranger's houses like him. But then, unlike my father, I got sober and have been sober for over thirty years. My father never got sober. He died of alcoholism. I loved that broken man. I miss him. So let me raise my glass of water to my father. Let me play an honor song for the Indian man who, like too many other Indian men, died too young.
An alconolic's life so vividly painted. sober for 30 years! amazed. Wish more could give up their addictions
Thanks for this poem Sherman, just now got to listen to it and your commentary. Like so many others here, I know the reality of that poem. I also know the current wonder at being able to wake up wide-eyed and alert.
Hope you have a nice meal and conversation (that you will be able to remember) to celebrate this Saturday.