Tests and Testimony

You can't have a testimony without a test. ~ NPR interview about The Sisterhood

The Big Book says the drunk's past
becomes the whole family's asset —
the main one, a treasure.
Kneeling at the porcelain altar,
drunken driving, brawls, blackouts?
Other addictions, too. Pornography.
Eating nonstop for days, lying, cheating,
betting the house. We want to hide,
to disguise, to change.
And change we do!
But we keep the assets,
the wretched past, Addict's Exhibit A,
and show-and-tell each chance we get,
the test we failed set against the one we passed
when we gave up, surrendered control,
and lived to tell the tales.