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Saturday, July 4, 2020

Thirst


No matter how many glasses
she drank,
she never found
the happiness she sought
at the bottom of each one.

A thirst that
could not be quenched,
a need unfulfilled,
stalked her days.

"I had it all,"
she said on her deathbed.
I was glad she thought so,
but to me, her life
seemed hard and painful.

As a child, I feared
the glasses of liquid
they loved so much.
I feared the party atmosphere
with which each weekend
started out,
lay trembling during
the blows and crashes
and screams
towards midnight.

Next morning, I hated the smell
of stale booze and cigarettes,
and the way we sat silently
around the table
pretending the night before
had never happened.

for The Sunday Muse


11 comments:

  1. This hits home and hits hard my friend. That next day silence cuts to the quick. Such hard and sad memories yet you have lived a more beautiful life Sherry. You always inspire me!

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  2. That is so powerful, Sherry. It is gut-wrenching and honest. Indeed must have been hard to keep pretending that these painful times never happened. And...ouch, to think that she thought she 'had it all.'

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  3. No one does candor better than you!

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  4. Very sad...but without the struggle and
    terrible times you would not be the writer that you are...a very good one I am surprised that no one has snapped you up as an interviewer..a salaried position would be nice...you were excellent at that too.

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  5. Cressida, thank you.......I did love interviewing people.........it has always been my favourite thing. Peoples' stories fascinate me and are more interesting than any fiction. I am now old and tired though and content enough to be doing much less. Smiles.

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  6. ""I had it all,"
    she said on her deathbed.
    I was glad she thought so,
    but to me, her life
    seemed hard and painful." - children experience things so directly and with such consequence.

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  7. This is painful truth written so vividly. One of your most powerful poems.

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  8. Powerful portrait of an unsatisfied, painful life.

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  9. Having to face the pain and grief about what has happened is never easy. You voiced it well.

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