My father’s addiction,
The poverty and the pain
The abiding sorrow,
The pervasive shame
His suffering and mine,
The struggle to escape
The scars of a childhood,
A defining landscape
The war and life,
The erosion of self
The grimmest reality,
Left on a shelf
The book of life,
The key to understand
The struggle to find,
What made this man
The poverty that trapped us,
The shame that we knew
Insecurity and turmoil,
Our deadly brew
Our lives could be different,
Our childhoods were grim
Lost in addiction,
That was the sin
