<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
fourth step<\/strong> my first I sat with Doug there was so much there was no despite I never I knew then <\/p>\n Luke Kuzmish<\/strong> is a new father, recovering addict, software developer, and writer born and raised in Erie, Pennsylvania.\u00a0 His latest collection, \u201cLittle Hollywood,\u201d was published in 2018 and is available on Amazon.<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" fourth step \u201cmade a fearless and searching moral inventory of ourselves\u201d my first fourth step on the porch of the halfway house out in the country 40 men for four months smoking maybe a million cigarettes I sat with Doug notebook in hand he would ask \u201cwhat was the fear?\u201d after every […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18696"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18696\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18799,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18696\/revisions\/18799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u201cmade a fearless and searching moral inventory of ourselves\u201d<\/p>\n
\nfourth step
\non the porch
\nof the halfway house
\nout in the country
\n40 men
\nfor four months
\nsmoking
\nmaybe
\na million
\ncigarettes<\/p>\n
\nnotebook in hand
\nhe would ask
\n\u201cwhat was the fear?\u201d
\nafter
\nevery inventory item
\nevery winding anecdote
\nevery unrequited love<\/p>\n
\npretense
\nabout penning this inventory
\ncrossing this bridge
\ninto a shared legacy
\ncommunion
\nwith failures
\nand successes
\nand God;
\na chance
\nfor
\ntrue intimacy<\/p>\n
\nprivacy
\nand I was shocked
\nthat what
\nmade me cry
\nwas recognizing
\nI was still
\nmad
\nabout my childhood
\nthe clothes
\nmom
\ndressed me in
\nthe way
\ndad was never
\nhappy<\/p>\n
\nall the hurt
\nI caused them
\nwith my deceit
\nwith my deadbeat living
\nwith my death wishes<\/p>\n
\nfelt vindicated
\nby unconsciously
\nseeking revenge<\/p>\n
\nthe hot coal
\nI was holding
\nwould only ever
\nburn me
\n <\/p>\n