For fifteen years I did my best

To honor all those vows

We shared before Goddess and man

But I had to get out

He had a mistress those last few years

And I could not compete

When I tried to intervene

He’d knock me off my feet

Her name was Alcohol, and I

Had to make a choice

To survive or lay down and die

I had to find my voice

So I filed all the paperwork

That said this all ends here

And every vow that came before

Just had to disappear

Divorce became my saving grace

It’s how I did survive

And two years later I got the call

That I was the only one alive

I barely heard the coroner

When she told me he was gone

I just hoped he’d found some peace

Wherever he’d moved on

So, for me, those vows they preach

When they join two souls together

Were only hollow promises

That couldn’t last forever

And people rarely understand

The grief I carry with me

For the man he was before the bottle

Made us both so empty.

~Mandy Kocsis©2023~