Lesson Learned Poem by Chantelle Nixon

With eyes too red
Smile too broken
You saunter around the room
Stumbling as if to a beat
I cannot hear
Words come with no sense or structure
Though I try to beg, to plead
Too far, you are gone
No longer a resident
In the man that I love so much
Rough hands that could turn violent
Greet my untrusting face
And though you say you don’t want to
Your eyes say that you do
Wish to cause me physical pain
I close my eyes and pray
That you will come back to me soon
Cause I don’t like this stranger
Don’t want him to ever return
Loving an alcoholic?
What is the lesson I must learn?
Even after a year, your love you may still never know