the fossil record
#49
Heroin
An ex-addict once told me
that heroin is too good for people
too much a foretaste of heaven;
people want to attain bliss
and stay in it without dying.
All occult traditions insist
on proper preparation before coming
face to face with god,
the reason Icarus falls from
flying too high and Phaeton
burns up from having taken the reins
of the horses of the sun unprepared.
People are too weak for perfection
found inside the poppy's pod
injected into the veins a perfect mesh
of alkaloids and synapses
as though Satan's fall embedded bliss
inside DNA petals of the opium flower,
dire hour of our desire.
David Thornbrugh