“It’s only one”
Out of a ten-pack
You said you’d quit.
But when?
When you are on your deathbed?
When we all leave you?
But “It’s only one.”
At this point all I hear are lies
And I can’t help but believe in them
Hoping you’d stop.
“It’s only one.”
One piece of hope I lose that falls into the collection of 16 years.
Alcohol is the black hole in our family that has taken everything,
Hope, trust, love, happiness
The foundation of family.
But “It’s only one”
Till it turns into two
-Three
-Four
Damn I lost count.
Signals are going off in my head
Alerting me of the storm up ahead
Is mom mad?
Are we next?
There go the plans I made for the weekend.
I’ve always wondered if I’m broken like those bottles on the ground
If your actions have finally caught up with me
It’s only one set of triggers of denotations
And it blew up in my face that night
The night that the crickets stopped chirping.
Who would have known that water would be your trigger?
The chairs filled with memories shattered outside?
Those memories burn through my mind.
I can still hear myself cry
Begging you to calm down.
Police were called and turned away
You said everything was good
Daughter like father I guess
Only one thing’s
Different
That night was the night I made a promise
These lips will stay sober.
I will not fall into the darkness you fell into
“It’s only one” will end with you.