Edges Issue 13: Alcolhol Is Destroying Our Marriage

EDGES MAGAZINE Issue 13

Mar-May 1998

ALCOHOL IS DESTROYING
OUR MARRIAGE.

Sarah stares into the face of the one she loves.
She shares her nightmare with us.

Looking at you now, a shadow of human form,
I remember only yesterday, several bottles ago;
Your lively smile, your brilliant mind,
Your loving kindness - I feel forlorn.

Can this mess of life really be true?
Is God lurking in this brokeness? or hiding in the cork,
Waiting in safety till the person returns that is you?
If only in those hazy eyes, I could glimpse some blue.

What untold pain leads hand to corkscrew?
Such anguish to body and soul - devastation.
Helpless, I watch from the wings, a desolate friend,
Till now you've always come back - some consolation.

Where do you go when your body is paralysed?
Are you in there in the pit of some abyss?
I imagine clawing swirls of black humiliation,
In miserable coils, cushioned by alcohol.
I weep in frustrated anger, dispirited love,
I watch in silence from my own dark island,
Oh God, are you really hovering above it all?
Then your trembling body I enfold - you're back.
This time.

Sarah M.