Joy or Compulsion?

I wake late to find him gone again
Boots gone with him, but favourite things remaining

I wonder where his drunk adventures will take him tonight
If he’ll find what he’s looking for
That release of something I can’t name
Among the trees and in the snow 

This night is cold but gin warms him
His need to run fuels him

I look at all his comfortable places
All the places where he belongs but isn’t
These few places in our tiny home
I look down at me and wonder 

How does it feel to return to these places
And to me

December 28, 2025
1:00 a.m.