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A Poem for the Loved and the Lost
Losing Sight: Addiction and Loss
I don’t have much to say about this piece other than to ask you to be gentle with it. My heart lies with this piece and this person. These are losses that shouldn’t happen.
Losing Sight
Originally published in Bourgeon Online
This poem may be triggering for those who struggle with addiction
You were the first person
I reached towards,
A single, shaking arm
Plunged into the thick
Fog of fresh grief.
You pulled me through
The first awful snow,
The first month on Earth
Without her;
You pulled me through
Blunt smoke in a stranger’s
Bedroom, ash covering
Bedspreads (which we would
Soon spread our bodies against).
You pulled me through
A dissociative dream that was
Spring semester;
Part of me fears
I will be a Junior forever.
You pulled me through
Long class lectures
And unfamiliar hallways.
You pulled me through
Relationships and wreckage,
Much of which, I’ll admit,
I created.
You grasped the horns
Of this life with all of your might
(A few too many times),
Until that last night.
Until you were pulled
(A bit too deep)
Into the diseased drugs
Clouding our hometown.
I’m so glad I got out
Alive.
(I’m so sorry I didn’t
Have the strength
To pull you through).
