The Walking Dead

The sad life of a heroin addict.

He wakes in a doorway, in a rank pool of piss,

And curses the sickness that brought him to this.

With a need more intense than the compulsion to eat,

He shivers and shuffles down the cold Winter street.

He remembers back, when he was just five,

A normal kid playing, alert and alive.

It began to unravel when they sent him to school,

He understood nothing, they called him a fool.

He stopped going to class, he was sick of the fight,

And he still wasn't able to read or to write.

He'd go in now and then when they tracked him down,

and sit at the back where he felt like a clown.

Hanging out on the streets and robbing for cash,

He had just turned eleven when he started on hash.

Alcohol, pills, some hash and some weed,

Soon weren't enough to conquer his need.

He first smoked heroin at thirteen years old,

it blew out his mind, made everything gold.

When smoking no longer relieved all his pain,

He started injecting, going straight to the vein.

As his life descended into chaos and crime,

He inevitably ended up doing some time.

In his cell he wondered how this came to pass,

Taking drugs smuggled in up another man's a*s.

He carried on using, causing more harm,

Even when he couldn't use the veins in his arm.

He'd inject in his groin or else in his feet,

He just had to have that brown powder, so sweet.

He's just twenty four but he feels very old,

Sleeping in doorways consumed by the cold.

He wants to be different, anything instead,

Of a shuffling junkie, the walking dead.

Reviews

[Marie]

This is a really good portrayal of an addict. But I can't feel sympathy for him. He obviously had a difficult beginning, but so have any others, and they didn't wind up on the street. I'd say if he was a victim of anything, it's his own weak character.

He wants to be different?

Yet he stays in the same life.

[Mick Burke]

Thanks Marie.I agree we are all ultimately responsible for our choices.

[Flood Powrie]

A gritty piece where the protagonist's circumstances would be easily identifiable to anyone. Still, its not an easy subject to tackle with any sense of a sympathetic ear but you managed that. You're language is contrite and doesn't shy away from painting an accurate picture of life as a drug addict. A tragic but informative piece of work which will no doubt resonate with many people.

[Mick Burke]

Thanks for reading and reviewing.

[alf]

Hi Mick. I am a great fan for anything that tells it as it is, and you have done exactly that. Metre is great, the cadence runs smoothly and you inject so much passion into the lines. I felt I was travelling a downward spiral with your man!! Love this, alf

[Mick Burke]

Thanks for the kind words Alf. I'm glad you liked it.

[alf]

Way more than that my friend. I will be reading everything you have written. I love a powerful write!!!!

[Edgar Frost Lovecraft]

Wow, this is a powerful and dark poem, but I enjoyed the detail and depth you put into it. Good job, this is a very well written work.

[Mick Burke]

Thanks for taking the time to read and review.

[Edgar Frost Lovecraft]

Your welcome