She took her first shot at age twelve
Whiskey
Dry
Downing it
burned but she thought it would make her
Fly
And as her mother stared into her glassy eyes
She knew her baby
Didn’t merely have a sleepover with her friends
Her little bookworm
Caught up in a whole new world
On a new path
Leading to her own
Series of Unfortunate Events
Her big brother held her hair back as she
Vomited into the toilet
Her little body shaking with each heave
Her eyes glistening with tears
Her body screaming for the poison she had
Poured into it
To leave.
IM SORRY DAD
She screamed.
Promising with each sob
To never
Ever
Drink again.

But this was a promise caught in vain because
In the December of her next school year
She smoked her first joint
And damn did she feel free
Her brain clouded by THC
Her mother stared into her bloodshot eyes
Smelled her sweater with tears in her eyes
As his daughter laughed
Her father couldn’t help but sigh because
He saw his little girl
On cloud nine
Her first high
DON’T DO THAT S***
Her brother screamed
In her her blissful detachment
She would bask
On Christmas night her mom found
A small tin flask
Under her pillow
Her parents in a panic
Wondering what would happen to their
Sweet
Little
Girl.

Her parents didn’t know what else to do
Yet they were determined that she see school through
Finish high school at the very least
Her life was shaking, frail
The drugs a frightening beast.
They told her she wasn’t allowed to go
To parties with her friends
Yet time and time and time again
They found her bed sheets empty
The front door unlocked
Her shoes gone
Footprints across the lawn
Her mother never slept those nights
Wondering if her little girl would be alright
In the morning with shaking hands making a call
To her daughters cell
Where are you?
Are you ok?
She waited for the day
When nobody would pick up.

Soon enough their daughter
Would rarely be at home
Spending her afternoons with
“Friends,”
Claiming to study.
Her brother would scream at her
When she opened the door.
WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?
Her mother would implore oh,
Please,
Stay at home tomorrow.
Yet the next day was no different when the police gave a dial
Hey, we just stopped your daughter’s car on the highway
We found an opioid vial.
Meet us at the station
Her father in denial.

She scraped by that school year barely getting C’s and D’s
Every time the house phone rang everyone would freeze
So tense
Waiting for the dreaded call
Hey,
Your daughter’s been poisoned by alcohol
Passed out.
Yet it never came.
Her school sent her to rehab
And she got better for a while yet
The pull to just have one pill was like
The strongest current of the Nile
Do you want to die?
She would be asked by doctors wearing blue masks.
No.