By Poppy Cumming Spain

 

 

Funny drugs

 

Drugs.

 

Funny things, really.

 

The power to save and so quickly destroy.

 

Contained in a seemingly innocent flower lies a substance that surges into people’s systems, taking them away from this planet into a state of mind

that they’ll spend the rest of their time

trying to return to.

 

But they won’t.

 

They’ll die.

 

Or, they’ll try to stop (they’ll fail).

 

And, they’ll try again.

 

Meanwhile, doctors will insert this puzzling liquid into patient’s veins

to give them relief from the pain

they’ll grapple with in their last days.

 

Or, a girl with a hernia who’ll throw up seven times,

with a little boy across the room staring into her eyes,

as her audience.

 

Years laters, they’ll do it again, and this time her body will flush as it spreads,

coating each inch of her skin with it’s blotchy and red

power.

 

Unsettling.

 

Uncomfortable.

 

When the nurse asks her to move herself from bed to bed, she’ll look up at her

dazed,

confused,

annoyed.

 

And, think ‘How?!’

 

Her dad will laugh at her droopy mouth and look through her glazed eyes, mentally answering emails.

 

He’ll pat her with feigned sympathy as they shuffle to the car.

 

On the drive home, she’ll wonder how long she’ll feel numb

and recall each of her memories of this family drug.

 

Frogs appearing on walls,

teddies knocked off their shelves,

comforting drips,

hospital spells.

 

Drugs.

 

Funny things, really.