They met while still in high school
Most likely to succeed
They had big plans for college
They were on their way indeed
She dropped out while a junior
He continued to the end
She left to have their baby
Their plans, they must ammend
They married down at city hall
Their parents did not know
He wore an old, ill fitting suit
In her dress, she did not show
But here she was, six months along
Their perfect world was done
They were not sure how they would get by
With the addition of their son
He was trained to be an architect
But he started sweeping floor
Interviews were hard to get
Unless you knew the name upon the door
She got a job in retail
Working afternoons each day
It wasn't what they planned on
But they needed her small pay
They had a small apartment
More a garret than a pad
But, in the area they wanted
It was the cheapest that they had
Two years went by and another child
Had increased their home to four
He was working as an architect
And was no longer sweeping floors
Since college though, he'd had a curse
A devil you might think
For to keep himself under control
He was sneaking nightly drinks
As pressure grew and deadlines loomed
His drinking did increase
He was now a junior partner
At the firm of Flint and Meece
He was fighting with his wife alot
The kids were just more stress
But, he bottled up his problems
And he chose not to address
The fact that they were fighting
He was drinking every night
And when she called him on it
They would end up in a fight
He was going in hung over
Some days, he just stayed home
And when they called him from the office
He would not pick up the phone
One day though he went over
the line out there in space
When the wife and he were fighting
He hit her in the face
He didn't know just what to do
He went down for a drink
He needed time to decompress
He needed time to think
She called in sick for her next shift
She stayed home for two weeks
She stayed home till the bruise was gone
And the swelling from her cheeks
His drinking kept evolving
He was hiding it no more
Plans were being made at work
To take his name off of the door
He'd shown up drunk for meeting
His plans were never in on time
They offered him assistance
He refused..there lies the crime
The kids withdrew and feared him
They'd rather eat with friends instead
They'd only come home after dinner
When it was time to go to bed
Another fight ensued at home
When they fired him at last
He beat his wife up so bad this time
She ended up inside a cast
Her arm was badly broken
Charges she refused to lay
But the cops who came to see them
Chose to lay them anyway
This was her chance to make a move on
She packed the kids up late at night
While he was in his jail cell
She booked them all on a late flight
Her family would take them
She would move them to the west
She would start her life without him
It would be for the best
When he got out and found her gone
He sat down, had a few
He didn't have a family,
He had no idea what to do
Instead of phoning to her folks
To see if they'd arrived
He went on a ***** ******
Which most would not survive
He drank from when he broke the day
Most times, well after four
Then he'd drink until he would pass out
And would spend the night there on the floor
He reached the point of no return
When the sherrif came one day
He said "It's time for you to leave this house"
"Unless the taxes, you can pay"
He'd let things slide, and had no funds
His world was on the brink
But, instead of fixing things on up
He went looking for a drink
He spent some time in missions
Trying to find work he could do
But, when he would only get rejected
He turned to devil's brew
His reputation sullied
There was no work in his field
He tried to find work elsewhere
He would see what things would yield
He got jobs working labouring
Warehouses, car washes and such
But, when he kept on missing shifts
And was still drinking as a crutch
He got kicked out of the missions
He refused to toe the line
He would rather be out drinking
******* on some cheap *** wine
He was living by the train tracks
In the cedars, in the woods
He was sleeping in a sleeping bag
He was existing as he could
His drink of choice was anything
That would make his pain just go
He was drinking aqua velva
And in a pinch he drink sterno
The devil had his soul tight
He was on his way to hell
If his life was a big boxing match
This was his final bell
He had the world at his command
A family, and career
But, when alcohol took him over
He lost all that was dear
He'd climbed on up the mountain
Worked his way up to the peak
But, his body was not strong enough
When the devil chose to speak
His wife and kids, they did ok
Their lives had turned the page
His kids soon did forget him
He was from a different age
They found him in the park one night
When the volunteers came round
They brought food to the homeless
He was dead there on the ground
His body had just given up
His liver had just quit
He died there in the bushes
This kind of end...a perfect fit
He had no wallet with him
All his secrets, they were hid
But they found inside his pocket
A picture of his kids
He died alone and helpless
At the bottom, not the top
He did not have the where withall
Or strength of self to stop
He may have died with nothing
Maybe, he died full of guilt
But, the world in which he left us
Was a world that he had built.
.