The Underground Railroad offered
safe passage from oppression,
servitude, deprivation to freedom —
something to be longed for, sought after,
the stuff of dreams. Yet brave were the folk
housing, feeding, moving freed slaves
and those escaping as well. Misery,
no matter how bleak, was a known, their past,
their lives.
The rooms of recovery offer
safe passage from oppression,
obsession, deprivation to serenity,
lives of promises fulfilled and surpassed.
Not for faint-hearted, recovery exposes
pain run from lifelong. Brave are the folk
who walk the path of recovery and rescue
their fellows. Misery, bleak and deadly,
at least is familiar, though hated.
