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Heroin Withdrawal
As the dark clouds roll in
Heaving, they bring
Decaying ravens plummeting
From a sky of cracked bones,
These black arrows shining
With beaks to take my eyes
Beaks to pierce my skin and rip -
Innumerable barbs -
Taking my flesh to reveal the fire beneath
How the lava fumes and kills with a sulphurous breath!
But
The red cannot warm. The blood is thick with ice.
An itch that once created pearls is now of splintered glass
Hands, arms
Legs
In the teeth
Of not a whimper, of not a cry
Only a tumble
Hard, fast
Into a silence that has stripped us of our faces
Like only those of us who know.
I keep returning
to this poem. It won't leave me alone, the stark imagery is too compelling.
"These black arrows shining
With beaks to take my eyes"
t.