Ode to an Addict

You climbed into the chamber of society's ambivalent gun
Willingly and insidiously you became the projectile - martyrdom
A scapegoat to be aimed with intent
Like a suicide bomber
Targeting the collective vulnerability and hopelessness
Of a culture eating it's own tail.

Your sacrifice upon the altar of consumption
Will be said to be collateral damage
 In the covert operation
To thwart the feared plague
Of self-destruction
About to break down
The wall
Comprised of the brick and stones
Of their compulsions.

No surprise you inhabit the shadows
Plying the hours between dusk and dawn
You have unwittingly
Agreed to embody
And starkly wear
All those attributes
That many -Will Not - see
In their own mirrors.

The shadow defines you
The shadow conceals you
The shadow consumes you

The monument to your being

- CONTEMPT -

I honour in you what the world refused to see.

I grieve that your presence was perhaps laid to waste.

Seeds upon barren ground

The world is lessened:

By

Your

Unfinished

Symphony.

I see you.
I love you.
God Bless You.