ten rehabs $300K
a couple cars and apartments
a penchant for sabotage and
swaths of tears and gutters later
our daughter remains homeless
has not stepped across a threshold
of her own and had a sit-down meal
in more than fifteen years
holds one job – panhandling
though we’ve guessed
she might have sold her body
for those goodies that get her high
once a blond-haired beauty with
brains she’s now a statistic
a very painful one for us
an annoying one for everyone else
some might think us heartless
letting her roam alleys and
dig in dumpsters at 42
but love can’t rescue self-hatred
the calvary was sent too many times
for the war she fought with herself
that was our biggest mistake
no one can win that for another
the best way this can end for her?
complete and powerless surrender
that’s the miracle hiding
near some crackpipe or dirty needle
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