National Adult Literacy Database

November 30, 1998

This poem was written by Jim Duncan, from Red Deer, Alberta. Jim is an Albertan who, at the age of 45, aspires to be a writer. He is enrolled at Red Deer College to further his education.

Alcohol Road

by Jim Duncan

We grow and mature by examples that are set,
By those our elders, and others we've met.
To practise what was preached,
Always a goal, but seldom reached.

How easy the road that leads so true;
How blind the mind that quaffs that brew.
No harm, they said, could come from nature's grains;
No benefit either, it seems, when drowning are your brains.

So often heard and seldom seen -
A battered spouse with ruptured spleen;
Sun shades hiding once beautiful eyes,
Now blackened and bruised and haunted by lies.

Through world-wide news we are made aware
That Alcohol Road has no one to spare.
Steps to recovery and experts abound;
Babies are born, but don't utter a sound.

All these words and more are true.
It happened to me, don't let it happen to you.
The signs on that road all point downhill,
It's a long climb up, but if you want to you will.