Going Under
By Laura Sobbott Ross
It was an all-night party she will confess later. Splayed and snoring on the beach, she draws the curious, mostly women. We cover her with our shadows. That’s my daughter, I tell them. She’s had too much to drink. One of the women asks if she can pray for me, and another asks if my shorts are from Shein. Yes, I say to both, remembering the pattern I wear is of brightly colored fish. Dreamless eyes. Hollow, gaping mouths. Tailfins that long for current but are caught in the stitches of seams. As the mother of an addict, I want to tell the other women there is no rock bottom, at least not one my daughter has found. She just sinks a little deeper, I mean to say, but the tide has already begun to rise around us.
Laura Sobbott Ross has worked as a teacher and a writing coach for Lake County Schools in Central Florida and was named Lake County’s poet laureate. Her poems have been featured on Verse Daily and have appeared in Meridian, 32 Poems, Blackbird, Main Street Rag, and elsewhere. She was a finalist for the Arts & Letters Poetry Prize and won the Southern Humanities Auburn Witness Poetry Prize. She is the author of six poetry books.
1/12-2/14 / Submit to Sonnet Boom: Love Poems for Miami, a poetry contest brought to you by SWWIM, Elevate Miami, and O, Miami. Youth and adult categories. Cash prizes. Free to enter. See Submittable for complete guidelines.
02/12 / Poetry Reading and Conversation with visiting poet-in-residence Allison Blevins & local poets Carolina Hospital, Nicole Hospital-Medina, and Holly Iglesias / The BBar at The Betsy-South Beach, Miami Beach, FL / Live and Live-Streamed on Instagram Live/Facebook Live at @swwimmiami / 7-8:30 pm EST / Free
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As a recovering alcoholic who got myself sober by writing poetry while walking the beaches of southeast Florida, this pulls at my heart. The concept of not finding a rock bottom, just sinking a little deeper, is so true. Rock bottom in my mind meant death… but until that final platform, it’s amazing how far you can still go. I hope if this is autobiographical that your child has found her way out of the darkness of substance abuse and addiction. 💜💜 you’re not alone.
oh my heart!