Tonight's Poet Corner: A Desperate Habit

A Desperate Habit
by Belinda Roddie

How do you deal
with the outside world
without becoming
a fanatical alcoholic?
The glaze over your eyes
will give the false impression
that the world is tinged
with gold instead of rust.

How do you manage
to live day to day
without trying to rot
your insides with narcotics?
The artificial high is temporary,
but at least it takes
your mind off the end
of humanity for at least
twenty minutes.

And all your friends
seem fine with drinking
sparkling water instead of
dunking their heads into
a plastic tub of bourbon. How
do they survive the deluge
of bad news, while we sit
in the corner swallowed by
shadows, and we drink
and we smoke
and we pray
for the pain
to go away?