She Said No At Intervention

She Said No At Intervention

The cameras rolled when she walked in.
She took a seat thinking it was a show
on addiction & how she would be seen.
So heavy to roll a joint or light a pipe on tv.
But suddenly someone was reading a letter,
and it was to her, her mother's voice, cracking
and berserk, her dad crying, her sister furious,
but clenching her lips in a smile, saying
get help, while her eyes said, you always manage
to be the center of attention.
The counselor, knowing and cold, speaking
her script of you have to go right now...
and her brother-in-law, the one with the fast
hands & hard thighs, as he dished out
money for meth, said, try, try for the family.
And she gagged at them all in a rage
and a lonely loss & betrayal that no one said
anything long ago, when she was top of the
class, bringing home the blue, cleaning her room,
tucking a pillow under her mother's head.
Then, she was invisible, but hopeful,
until she came home from a friend's house,
high for the first time & she slept forty eight hours
and no one missed her dinner plate, no-one
said goodnight, so she went again & again.
Drugs for money, drugs for sex, drugs for
a friend, and finally, anything for drugs.
Pregnant & not stopping & the baby born
with a hole in its belly & so small...so small,
she couldn't stand to look, so her family
took it away to some other family and now..
this! this farce of sending her, Now! Now!
to some place where no one would know
her face, no sunshine pill to warm that narrow
hurt, that huge hope splattered at the bottom
of her heart..
She cursed them all from the depths of her soul.

But they didn't air that show.

Reviews

[Gandré]

yes, you are not writer, you are a sorceress.... wonderfully told.. tragicall and yes, you made me think deeply... I thought.... she was a victim too, nobody ever loved her. she didn't have the strength to love her unborn baby...it is all about strength. I don't think bad about such people. I would give them all my love.

[Doctor JKC]

These interventions are just pure crap like any 12 step program.
Little to no success. A cult anyway. Research their beginnings
and history. I did my masters thesis in AA/NA.
I do believe in taking away babies at birth from proved unfit
females and their felonious male fathers. They foster monsters
and serial killers as the facts tell.
Drugs for self-medication regardless of the wake of destruction
it causes. There is no known solution as yet. Until then sterilization,
incarceration, and rather many hours of community service would
serve us all better. Foster homes and care are another issue.
Hugs, Jack

[Ellen Hammond]

Wow! Such a realistic tale you have woven in words that draw us right into the depths of the girl's mind and soul. Too often those who are confronting an addict were part of the problem in the first place. I don't watch that show or the sensationalized talk shows that exploit people's pain. They probably do more harm than good.

[LJW]

Brilliant.

Just >insert the "f-bomb" here< brilliant.

[Neg]

I agree with "Gandre" I dont't think bad about such people. It is very difficult I could only imagine. Great work!

[Tomás Ó C..]

Briliant, shows the hearlessness behind many who are called to shows like Jeremy Kyle and Jerry Sprininger for "help" when all they help is the ratings.

[Brjden (Bridge-Den) Cre..]

Great write Phibby! I love how true to form your writing is. There's no resolve, there's no happy ending. Only a rich story filled with probables and great visuals.

"and her brother-in-law, the one with the fast
hands & hard thighs, as he dished out
money for meth, said, try, try for the family.
And she gagged at them all in a rage
and a lonely loss & betrayal that no one said
anything long ago, when she was top of the
class, bringing home the blue, cleaning her room,
tucking a pillow under her mother's head.
Then, she was invisible, but hopeful,
until she came home from a friend's house,
high for the first time & she slept forty eight hours
and no one missed her dinner plate, no-one
said goodnight, so she went again & again."

I love how real this whole piece is and this part really hit me because you see how neglect and attention deprivation plays in an addict's life! Great poem Phibby!

[W.k.kortas]

Much edgier than your norm, and more straight-ahead, but with your trademark density (which Emily notes in her review), the words and images as weighty as any Tolstoy novel could ever hope to be. Fine, fine stuff.

[Emily B]

my god, Phibby, you told that story with dusch character. I felt like I was there. I felt like I was her the one who cursed them all. It is an art, the way you weave a story out of words so thick that we can see it.