Crackheads

Once upon a time
I shared company with crackheads,
Chasing after euphoric addiction,
the instant good-bye high,
the rocked powder mixture
in a glass or metal fixture,
atop the Chore Boy
scorched brillo.

Crackheads, selective buyers,
supply and demand,
emptied Novocain canisters,
sectioned TV or radio antennae,
straight shooters, power hitters -
with bits and pinches or the rectangular
shaped wafer, alabaster cubes,
uneven crumbs, kibbles stuffed
in puckered orifices - then fired,
the anticipated sizzle,
poisonous inhalation
lethal fumes produced by butane
and cheap lighter fluid.
Sore blistered thumbs
flicking, flicking,
an incessant effort to elicit
amid countless clicks
one last flame instead of sparks
to afire the cream-shaded bitch,
burn the snow in order to numb the brain,
Alter consciousness, derail morality,
Anchor intelligence and creative twist...
Habitual dingbats,
Marvelling and admiring caked "rez",
Lining the nonporous innards of "glass dicks"
Sharing company with crackheads,
stuck on stupid' mired in mindlessness,
a small unstructured world
of Bic lighters, zippos, whitetips, matches
and 151 or alcohol for the suicide;
a small petty world,
hiding and whispering behind close doors,
pulled shades, drawn shades
and venetian blinds.
Lowered t.v. and radio
to hear imagined footsteps, helicopters
and other paranoia phantoms.
Washed out entities,
watching out shouting out "One time"
and mouthing unintelligible,
monosyllabic words,
half-audible, off- the- wall gibberish.

Crackheads indulges,
anywhere any place anytime,
fair game fair play,
no exception to the rule
for a quick hit
behind dumpsters
between parked trucks and cars,
alleys, doorways, broad daylight
and portable johns.
An assumptive, pre-emptive world,
all facets of humanity
lumped together -
priest atheist activist fanatic,
legislators, commentators
no common denominator-
one Hungarian goulash,
Louisiana jumbo shared with Mona Lisa
lady Godiva, Medusa
and pulp pornography.
Minds unhinged
by the drug attack
crack-whack attack
accompanied by razor blades
and mirrors, scratched, dented, smeared
a thousand and one times over.
Fetishes in a squeeze,
fetuses under siege.
Sharing company with crackheads,
synapses tangled branches,
briared tumbleweeds
rolling across deserted mind strips.

Strawberries, raspberries,
tricking for a treat -
sex in a vacuum'
performed in crack houses,
abandoned buildings, mildew garages,
cardboard and concrete condos'
and beneath space blanket shelters.

Sharing company with crackheads
in stretched limos, porches and yachts,
sky scrappers, Tudor mansions
and behind closed door caucuses.
Cruising, navigating through strawberry fields
wrangling over short money,
a hooter, peeper, a pebble
sometimes, disguised do low.
Paged deliveries, drop-bys
drop-offs - dropping dead.
Sharing company with crackheads,
teenagers, seniors,
used-to-Be's, wanna-Be's,
scarred, twisted,
tweaking on skid row asphalt,
ambling from side to side,
inspecting cracks in sidewalks
and creased curbs,
looking for a place to stay,
needing a friend to trust , lay
betray. Looking for drawers
to rummage through.
Values and valuables:
microwaves, jewelery,
furs, cars exchanged for 5-o's
eight tracks, dubs, eight balls and kilos.
Sharing company with crackheads,
chasing euphoric addition
spooked in spoons, shot
through syringes into lumped flesh.
Scandalous forays for a pinch.
Preying victims, murder -
drug addictive babies infective
shelved. Fags and spike dikes
chasing after the euphoric, instant
good-bye high --die.