He went to jail for a year
after going back
to the cocaine and whiskey
and getting caught
with a pistol and the drugs,

on the heels of the walked out wife
whom he met and married
after only a week
in an obsessive instant
not long before.

Which goes to show,
though two peas in a pod
might seem like a good thing at the time,
when lightning strikes
it's just the electric stink
that lingers.

He got out
and came back
to the warm greetings
of sober friends
as we are known to do,

though while everyone always
hopes for the best,
it just may be,
like so many others,
his mind's insistence
upon the quick fix
will tear him away
yet again.

And of the wife,
neither he nor we
have heard or seen
a damn thing.

All of this
has me thinking
how desperate
and clumsy
some of us are
to clothe ourselves
in whatever we think
is normal,
right,
and good

as if
the mere acquisition
of people and stuff
is enough
to finally quench
the void down deep.

As for me,
I walk these windy fields
alone and no different,
but for the hard won awareness
that while there lingers in this heart
an ache or two of the sad sad hole,

whatever there is
to whatever I am
does not
in truth
require
completion.