I had a friend once
who would always tell the funniest of stories
like this one time
he woke up in the same bed
the same room
the same house
the same town
but today was different
today, for once, he was sober
and he very much planned to stay that way
from this moment in time
or what eventually became that moment in time
which became next week
next month
pretty soon
you'll see
he'd be a new man
a clean man
a respectable man
a sober man
I just came back from my friends funeral
not too long ago
he overdosed on some ******
ironic too
because he had some serious plans to get clean
the very next morning
I had a friend once
who would always tell the funniest of stories
he was going to get clean
you'd see

He watched his sons football game
with a set of binoculars
from the parking lot 300 feet away.
His ex-wife sat on the sidelines
texting her latest boyfriend
while making eyes at her sons coach.
She didn't care for football, or
for her son much for that matter.
She would go so far as to beat him on occasion
when she'd had a bad day, but he did care,
to him that boy was everything.
For her that was all the reason she needed
to file the falsified police report
which lead to the unnecessary restraining order.
He watched his sons football game with binoculars,
she didn't even know what number was on the back of his jersey.