Turned to the boss, he stammered 'PLEASE, <br />I'm overwhelmed by this disease. <br />I cannot help it that I drink <br />and if I AM now at the brink <br />of losing what pays all my bills, <br />your verdict Sir, will be what kills <br />and you would carry in your soul <br />the guilt from taking on the role <br />to pull the rug from under me <br />and hang me from the tallest tree. <br /> <br />You know, mylord, I cannot stop, <br />a kangaroo must always hop, <br />I have, as you will, doubtless, guess <br />searched deep within, my heart, no less. <br /> <br />The fault, however, does not rest <br />with me but hatched inside the nest, <br />you see my father was too strict <br />he labelled me a derelict. <br /> <br />My mother nursed me for two moons <br />next door they raised a pair of goons. <br />And that, of course, was what soon paved <br />the road for me to a depraved <br />and helter-skelter life of stress, <br />so, on your sacking, stop the press! <br /> <br />Genetically, I carry genes <br />that ripened in my early teens. <br />It's chromosomes from Mum and Dad <br />and if you ask me, they are bad. <br /> <br />Thus, all in all, I'm NOT to blame. <br />The world around me takes the shame. <br />A drink to me is medicine <br />and not some godforsaken sin.<br /><br />Herbert Nehrlich<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-disease-called-alcoholism/
