STUMBLING HOME: Life Before and After That Last Drink

Cover for my memoir from Heliotrope Books

Prologue

What happens to a child who’s abandoned
           intentionally or not
                        when she grows up?

A girl whose early years are rife
with anger and fear
who confuses trouble with fun
and who’s terrified of being left again?
She ends up drinking and drugging
way more than she should
seeking to obliterate her past
sleeping with every Tim, Rich, and Henry
with her claws ever extended
eventually marrying a guy she snags
who consumes as much as she does
fathers her child
and fulfilling her fears
leaves her when she gets sober
unable to do so himself.

This woman-child stumbles and falls
over and over again
                        until finally
          she picks herself up 
and stumbles home.