Taken to water

Because as it tends to happen
I have suffered
( though others have suffered more)

Because with these lips I have inflicted pain
And trod and pushed to get my way again and again

My grandmother wrote me letters with five dollar checks
I never answered nor cashed

Be cause both fear and its cousin drunkenness 
Have compelled me to wander
In the sacred woods
In the sacred sounds of the leaves in the wind 
And I have returned unchanged in my mind

And running with the dogs down their path
Saw a pile of old clothes
Now a suicide
And beloved by none I did not see his brains on the bush
Nor believe he would do this to us

Because as a child I have suffered
Because as a woman far gone
Because I have counted the minutes then the hours
Until my brain and body leave me alone

Because of all this and many others
When the suffering stops

I raise my precious mug of water
And drink

And there is no other as liquid  as sweet