Blackout. Deny. Repeat.

The Long Reach of Addiction

This poem has been patiently sitting in my computer for years. It was written about an artist friend who lived with an alcoholic. The horrific news about the murder-by-addiction of our beloved Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, moved me to set the poem free. You know the kind of news. The shock freezes you into a stupor. You can’t process. Not until the reality settles in can you again function.

It’s not just the addicted who live in pain. It’s everyone in their orbit. Addiction doesn’t care who it damages.

I personally know 12 people who have fallen into the sticky spider’s web of addiction. Five of them, it killed. Six of them, it broke their lives. That leaves just one who escaped the web. Praise be to the courageous ones who find a way out. And to every soul who follows them.

With respect to alcohol, many frequent or heavy drinkers secretly and fearfully ask themselves the haunting question, “Am I an alcoholic?” The standard response: If you have to ask, the answer is yes.

’Nuf said. Here’s the poem.

The Reiners’ son, Jake, wrote an essay about his parents after their tragic death. If interested, you’ll find it here on Substack.