AA Abecedarian
- AA Abecedarian
An addict and I walked into thebasement meeting holding hands.Court-appointed. Wedrank coffee, Styrofoam cups,edged closer to the circle,finally sat. I believed agood man was buried insidehim. When he became the bottle,I closed my eyes, tried tojustify his hands on my throat.Kill the drunk not-him.Love the sober true-him.
Most people shared only theirnames. A few told stories. I—observer, lurker, fraud—passed. What would I have said,quiet girl who'd never been high?
Rain outside. He and Istood under the awning, waiting.Thank you for coming, he said,understanding what I didn't: noveil between not-him and true-him.We're so good at fooling,X marks any spot we want.You're welcome, I said. The camerazoomed out. We became small. [End Page 229]
Melissa Fite Johnson's first collection, While the Kettle's On (Little Balkans Press, 2015), won the Nelson Poetry Book Award and is a Kansas Notable Book. She is also the author of A Crooked Door Cut into the Sky, winner of the 2017 Vella Chapbook Award (Paper Nautilus Press, 2018). Her poems have appeared in Valparaiso Poetry Review, Rust + Moth, Sidereal, Whale Road Review, Rise Up Review, and elsewhere. Melissa is a high school English teacher who loves introducing her students to new poets. She and her husband live with their three dogs in Lawrence, Kansas. Find her online at melissafitejohnson.com.
