And this poem is called "Sit and Listen."
You belong in this room full of scruffy recovering drunks.
Adobe shack with crack stained glass around its door.
Perch like a sinking ship on the edge of town.
Smoke rises from cigarettes lodged like talking
sticks in each person's fingers.
Blue floats just below the ceiling as if
disembodied ghosts.
Disembodied spirits long for escape
through the old fashioned wood framed windows.
Everyone has a voice here.
Once the leader reads the preamble
and says the word topic even the deranged, the myopic,
that old man sucking oxygen from a metal tank at his feet.
Even the sleepy guy who just today had his last drink.
Let go and let go that man says, pouring his troubles out
like cheap wine trying not to gripe
about his aggravated DUIs.
Two in one weekend he says.
He thrives on crisis he says.
How can he find God.
He finally pleads to the group eyes
lowered like bleeding asphalt shining on black asphalt dune.
Bleeding headlights shining on black asphalt dune.
He needs to give up he says.
His fingers drum the table.
Two young punks in muscle shirts and baggy pants
glance around the room and share their horror
with clear eyes and oozing wounds.
Where you start is not knowing, the shaved head boy
says, an open sketchbook on the bench beside him.
Praying no matter what says the red haired boy an open--
I'm sorry.
Pray no matter what says the red haired one.
Don't give up he says.
Surrender.
The guy against the back wall cackles each time a new person
talks.
You want to yell at him, tell him to shut the hell up.
Listen you want to say.
We're trying to save lives here.
But the next voice whispers miracles.
His little kid finger shaped into crucifixes.
Pit bulls that didn't attack failed catechism classes.
How when he walked in the door the first day
we were all full of shit and there was no way
he could sit and listen.
Sit and listen.
The room shakes.
The nervous light their tiny flames.
Eyes dart like snakes, tongues caught in their own lies.
The next speaker smiles, lights a smoke and offers her name.