What makes you think a
Writer isn’t a Drug Salesman?²
We Hide hind a Puff of Smoke³
Drugs for stilling Pain, for inducing
Sleep, for begetting beautiful Dreams,
Lively Spirits and the passion of Love⁴
Fetch your Drugs, art of Poetry, that make
One Unaware – for a while – of the Wound⁵
Look – if you could Bear Sobriety, you’d be Sober⁶
Thou art faint at Soul – and thou canst not
Find the Drugs required to Save thyself⁷
We Inhale Clouds that Promise a more
Thorough Oblivion than mere Death⁸
Stick a Needle in the arm and seek
An Out in Other Worldly Dreams⁹
Every Addiction Starts with
Pain – and Ends with Pain¹⁰
¹ Neil Young, Alabama
² Kurt Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle
³ Alice Walker, The Color Purple
⁴ Hermann Hesse tr. Basil Creighton, Steppenwolf
⁵ C.P. Cavafy tr. Rae Dalven, Melancholy of Jason
⁶ Donika Kelly, Out West
⁷ Aeschylus tr. Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Prometheus Bound
⁸ Ann Lauterbach, Il Pleut
⁹ Langston Hughes, Junior Addict
¹⁰ Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now