HEROIN

I remember my best friend David

coming to my apartment

on a Tuesday morning

junk-sick

He was a good looking kid

of 20

worked for an ambulance service

wanted to be a medical technician

and then a Doctor

One problem only - he loved heroin

I gave him 20mgs of Methadone

from a 40mg ‘wafer’

I had gotten at the clinic on Broadway

in New Town

He went to score anyway

with “Bear” (Big John - who was later to

murder “Snake” with a Bowie knife in the car

where Snake slept)

I should have copped for David

but it went down like this:

John knew the dealer

David paid for John’s hit

John gave David a bag

then left him alone to shoot it.

Laura (David’s girlfriend) found him

sea blue in a sofa

Dead from an O.D.

At the funeral his mother

gazed at us

not with rancor or contempt

but with pity . almost sympathy

as if we were already dead

like her young son, David.

I walked up to the casket

didn’t kneel

looked at him and loved him

He had been so bright

we had stayed up all night often

playing chess

and talking

about History and antiques

He had a brass bed, which Laura loved,

and a porcelain wash basin

with a matching pitcher in it

on his Victorian night stand.

I put a new syringe (a 27)

along with a folded foil bag

of China White heroin

into his vest pocket

occulting the gesture with my body

as I kissed his forehead

-A morning hit

for when he awoke
                                  in Rapture.