“God willing, we … may never again have to deal with drinking, but we have to deal with sobriety every day.” ~ Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition (Kindle Locations 6456-6457)

They call them dry drunks,
the ones not working a program
but holding on to an alcohol-free life
by white knuckling, by peer pressure,
by that frayed willpower they couldn’t hold
but now it’s better, with a few of the tools,
with camaraderie, or by substituting
another addiction or other behavior,
not better, just different. And it’s slippery,
tenuous, hard to hold.
But unless that’s the problem,
it’s not the problem.

Living sobriety, no matter what the addiction,
that’s the issue. Finding the promises true,
learning to love yourself and others,
accepting responsibility for self and nobody else,
living life to the fullest, that’s the issue.
And unless you can find that, you’ll fall back,
be stuck in the mire…or act like a bear,
be miserable inside and a carrier of that
to all who meet you. But when you get past,
when you do find recovery, then that’s glorious,
a life beyond our wildest dreams,
recovery.