Heroin (a poem in memory of my Uncle Tom)

          Heroin
          

          I paid no attention to appearance

          I should have known “thin tongue, thing words.”

          Now I’m constricted by addiction

          And my gasps, they go unheard.

                    It finds a place to sink it’s fangs

                    And it slithers through my veins

                    As it hisses in my brain

                    “It’s only me that numbs the pain.”

                    But it’s coiled around my neck

                    And it’s squeezing out the breath

                    I cringe as scales scrape my flesh

                    Now it’s the numbness that’s the threat

          I’ve got the venom in my blood

          And the bruises on my arms to

          To prove I was a fool to think

          It was the snake that could be charmed.