(Based on drug abuse)
As words flicker into shadow and the rain mists into dust,
as my mind spins like a dreidel over lunacy and lust.
As the owl goes tick-tocking
and the clock begins to ‘hoo,’
beneath a burnt out sky
and the reflection of the moon.
As the highways concrete path runs its veins along the earth,
leading me from here to there,
and there to here — and back.
As the fortress of the forest seems to hush the light of day,
as the roadkill passes by me
as if to say, “it’s all okay,
as if to say we must remember
that death lies along these veins.”
As the horned mountain peaks begin to tear apart the sky,
as the clouds in billowed sails burst with teardrops made of ice.
As the mad wind reels wailing a vail ‘top the veins
as if to say, we must remember,
“Death lies along these veins.”
As the traction of the metal beast upon whose back I ride
slips upon the darkness, wheels skidding on the ice.
As a tunnel looms before me, and a cliff burnt at my side,
as my heartbeat overpowers me
playing tricks with my mind.
As I shutter as I’m skidding, and the veins seem out of reach,
grasping for the concrete, as the beast begins to breach.
Urging at the wheel to change the tires track,
staring out to the abyss, with its shadows looking back.
As to the veins I’m given, laid on a silver plate,
as to the cold earths dying womb I’m accepted and embraced.
As to a mother and a child, within her hands I’m placed,
with the echo of the roadkill, “Death lies along these veins.”
Beyond the questions of humanity like whether we belong,
beyond our inner compass of what is right and wrong.
Beyond each fleeting wish and every dying dream,
the highway passes by me as if to say, “It’s all okay.”
As if to say, “We must remember, death lies along these veins.”
As the shallows of the truth and the depths of my lies collide,
forcing out all reason, and will left to survive.
As I wake broken on the roadway, I hear her softly say,
“Not here my child, not on the concrete veins.”