Verse: Needle

(don't know if this quite works, but here you are. If you know me, you can spot the reveal a million miles away...)

How many times
have I sought
solace and
escape in
the needle?

held it in
my eager
trembling hand
ready to insert it
into that perfect
singular dark ribbon
of vein?

waited with
palpable desire
for it to
at last
take hold
and let me
drift into
a heavy-lidded
nodding-the-head
flurry of
outrageous bliss?

say what
you will
of my affliction
but you
should know
that no less
an authority
than Bob Marley
once said
something to
the effect that
when the music hits
you feel no pain

A slave
to the needle
I know
in those moments
I touch
something eternal
something beyond
thought
or expression
something pure
and true
and egregiously divine
it pierces
my heart

I know this
and that
when it's over
I crave
another hit