Finding a Way Home

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