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Read 'I was once alcohol's captive. Here's what set me free.'

Former U.S. poet laureate, Tracy K. Smith, writes a gorgeous, complicated essay about alcohol, race, and motherhood.

 
 

Tracy K. Smith publishes a vulnerable essay on drinking, race, and motherhood for The Washington Post. This essay is adapted from her most recent book To Free the Captives: A Plea for the American Soul. Read the following excerpt below:


"When my children were no longer infants but still quite young, the arc of each of my days, as I’d jokingly sometimes say, was: coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee, wine, wine, wine, wine. Which is a way of admitting: In the time I’m remembering, and for reasons I am seeking only now to recall, my living had become an attempt at forgetting.


The arc of my days, as I sometimes allowed myself to see, was to take great joy in waking, feeding and dressing my children, then handing them over to the preschool or the sitter or whomever I could trust to take them."


Access to the full article here. For more reading on motherhood and alcohol, read Pamela Fox's article "Drink Up!? Time to Swap #WineMom for #Co-Parenting"

 

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