the writing life

I plow through the thick book.
the biography
of the writer.
the drunk, the liar, the loser.
but a fine
craftsman of the written word.
the shambles
of his life goes on and on.
the ex wife, the criminal
children,
the bankruptcies and broken
down cars.
the book is thick with details.
each page submitting another
tale of woe
as he dragged his family
from one rented house
to another,
and yet, he kept writing, kept
at the key board,
stories and poems,
pushing his hand across
the pad, waiting for an angel
to save him from his madness.
finally he does find her, or
she finds him, so it has a happy
ending. fame and fortune arrives,
at least until the point
where he dies
from smoking five packs
of cigarettes a day,
and the family left behind
claws frantically
at the money left behind.