Addictions Counselor by Fran Markover

for my clients Sometimes, when healing words escape I think of the gray squirrel who muscled from the office chimney. Whose sooty head poked through the pie plate hole where my wood stove had stood. The animal transfixed, my client jumping from a chair, her story interrupted— mother inaccessible, unfulfilled, a daughter’s bottled angst, black-out nights. Later, I read Addictions Professional, of White Ladies, Red Devils, Angels’ Dust. How each patient climbs from a different darkness. I think of the squirrel who clawed his way from the amazement of my building as if he could grasp hunger, bottom, ascent— bury the nuggets for winter’s stash. How I chased him from room to room. Easy Does It. Let Go. Surrender. Swing wide the blessed door. ~ from Rattle #34, Winter 2010, Tribute to Mental Health Workers