Not By My Past

By John. W

My guilt when I began was all I had sought to acquit.
After years of denial, sobriety let me reveal my secrets at last.
My “rational lies” about my alternative facts of life no longer fit,
Replaced by an honest inventory I thought was a gift from my past.

But as the awakening grew and brought focus to my vision with it,
Slowly I saw that for My Future had I my recovery been given.
Only by the excesses from before, could I climb from my horrible pit,
My alcoholism demanding that my recovery would by My Future be driven.

Now revealed, I saw I had arrived Not By My Past, but For My Future.  
My prize was a broad highway and the opportunity to trudge the road.
I discovered with each Step taken, I could my new life nurture,
Unveiling on my journey, life’s wondrous beauties to behold.

                      Harms were listed, amends planned and undertaken, the past freshly swept,
                      The promise of a new freedom and a new happiness, one day at a time, kept.