It helped me get through lonely nights
and gave me courage for a bit
It wasn't until I tried to quit
That's when I learned it bites

The way it fights
Can't turn your back
Always staring
Ready to attack

It's my fault
I should have more sense
I shouldn't have done what I did
Under the influence

I wasn't myself
Now I'm facing the pain
But I will learn to live again
I quit today

I kept the book you gave me,
the one you never finished.
The corners are still creased
where you stopped -
a moment frozen in paper.

I tried to read past it once,
but the words were ghosts
of a story I didn’t know
how to end.

So it sits on my shelf,
not quite forgotten,
not quite forgiven,
like the memory of you.