Rock Bottom (Brandy Goodman Poem #4)

How do you know when

Rock bottom is where you are?

How can you see

When you’re near or far?

With everyone it’s different.

Is your bottom based on age?

If it’s not, then how

Is your bottom gauged?

The rocks you see at twenty

Aren’t even close to the rock down the line.

When you are pushing forty

The rocks are much more defined.

Does that mean that when you’re young

Rock bottom’s not what you hit?

Even if it feels like you’ve been bled dry

Are you still at the top of the pit?

When I look around me know,

And see all the pain and tears,

It makes me wonder what’s to come

In the next twenty to forty years.

I feel like I’m at the bottom,

Looking at better days up high,

But if I look down, will I see

More rocks to be wounded by?

I guess I’ll never know

Until I get to a time

When rock bottom is the place

From which you have to climb.