Drug addiction is such a devastating part of our current culture. I've seen drugs destroy so many lives, relationships and families...and the futures of so many talented and gifted individuals.

I was very much in love with a man who struggled with an addiction to cocaine. I wanted so much to believe that genuine and unconditional love would win out, but it wasn't to be.

I eventually had to let go of that relationship, as much as I was loath to do so.

Part of the process involved capturing the experience in poetry. (That's how I exorcise my demons.)
And it goes like this:

In the end
Pandora always wins,
Doesn’t she?
Dressed in purest white,
She promised pleasure and a panacea
For dulling the pain you would not face.
She pursued you tirelessly…
Pining and whining
And wanting her way with you.
With pretty lies she persuaded
You to participate in your own destruction.
She was always your 1st priority.
She held all the power,
Playing you like a puppet.
You were her willing prisoner and
Nothing you possessed was too precious
To sacrifice on her alter…
Not your family, your daughter, not me…
In exchange for your worship
She punished you mercilessly.
She was the snake in the garden,
Drinking from the empty pools of your eyes.
Prodigal…
With your pipe, your powder
And your Paraphernalia…
You walk a perilous, thin, fine line in a
fool’s paradise.

Copyright ©2004 Randi Reyes

Thanks, Chris, for speaking to an issue that so many battle on a daily basis. It isn't just the abusers who lose. We all do.

--
Randi Reyes
Live Out Loud