In Addiction, Bond And Bondage

In addiction 
one may find
both bond 
and bondage
and he worked hard
to maintain both.
through people he saw
daily as well as the ones
passing through, or
just passing. Such
connection is earned, 
no matter what 
the learned and the clean
say, and he did his part:
let them into his home
as far as he could,
paid for all their substances
as well and often as he could —
buying a round
for the house left him
floorbound more than once
but he got up and maintained —
and whenever there was
a less than occasional death
he bowed his head and went back
to the same corners, same stools,
same streets almost at once
to say, “did you hear about…”
and to say, “damn shame” or
“saw that coming…” almost by 
instinct, so easily had things turned
from bondage to bond and back,
the changes almost seamless,
his face hardening from masking
despair with concern, barely
wondering at all after a while
if, when his turn came to be
the subject of the day, he would be
spoken of in the same way.