Swimmer
You splash your way through life
in alcoholic stupor you recall
and yet forget, and so you live
within the good times of the past.
And in your wake,
the people who have known you
shake their heads
knowing where your journey ends.
I, too, because of you
cheer you on, because of you
strangers find me now
with bitter disappointment
just like those you knew
because they’d hoped for better things
for research papers due.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology