last year
your body was so cold it took the hospital hours to bring your blood back to normal
after the nap you took for hours in the snowbank just behind the theater
the alcohol laying slumber on you like a blanket with its fists around your neck

now we haven't heard from you since last night
last night there was a snowfall
and all I can imagine is you
dressed in knuckles, skin dry and breaking
lying there
cold

___________

I have known at least three Native American Indians
who died this way

that alcohol can lay you down hard and fast
stroking your forehead no matter what the conditions

the one with the gray streak running through his black hair
 gave me an indian name,
"Wah-Bee-Go-Nez"
Indian for "little flower"

someone saw him, the sheet over his body
stretcher holding his frame like a praying mantis,
arms upstretched
offering his soul

the gold shoes, they were the give-a-way
it was him
and he was gone

___________

the rehab has called
"no he isn't here"
"no he can't come back"

you wont pickup
you wont pickup
you wont pickup

___________
 


--substance abuse also kills family