Dirty (tanka-esque)

We attend church base-
ment meetings: mother-daughter
connecting over
coffee, blue label creamer
force confessions for strangers

to AA, NA,
ACA sponsors, judges
we’re hoping to prove
her recovery happened.
Later, in her Civic, off

Reseda alleys
she dives for treasure on trash-
day and says, off-hand,
“relapse is normal” and “the
cat piss smell will fade, in time.”