Drug Abuse doesn't get much press these days what with Ecological, Financial and World Political news taking up much of the airtime (and thus people's minds) but that doesn't mean drug abuse doesn't still affect thousands of families across Canada and the rest of the world each and every single day.
The following original poem by G. Laidlaw is a true life prophetic obituary written about one single case of drug abuse and its impact...
© Copyright by the Author. All rights reserved. Used with permission
Ridin' The Rails
You were a happy married man
You and your wife made lots of plans
Now you're in the Devil's hands
Dying on his installment plan
And your wife don't understand
And your kids don't understand
This is the story of your life and other haunted tales.
You're ridin' the rails.
Feed the poor. End all war. Split the atom. Save the whales.
You're ridin' the rails.
Used to be handy
Until the nose candy
Took away your will to live
Ripped away your will to give
Stole away your power to love
Stripped your faith in God above
Killed your spirit ruined the man
While you sat there making plans.
Someone else screwed you over? Man it never fails.
You're ridin' the rails.
They might be invisible but you can see their trails.
You're ridin' the rails.
Little voices in your head
Fill you up with thoughts of dread
Scared of becoming paranoid
Humor gone easily annoyed
Conspiracy theories fill your mind
They're out to get you! All Mankind
Traps and monsters of every kind!
That's what you see when you're snowblind
Standing behind the curtain hiding from the mail.
You're ridin' the rails.
Zombie-fried paranoid and thirteen shades of pale.
You're ridin' the rails.
A mind unclear
Is easily upended
A mind in fear
Cannot be defended
If my rhyming's queer
No need to be offended
Do your own line here:
(Yes, the pun's intended)
Got a fridge full of food but your appetite's failed.
You're ridin' the rails.
You've lost a hundred pounds, a hundred years, since you last stepped on the scales.
You're ridin' the rails.
Priorities inverted
Authorities alerted
Responsibility averted
Morality perverted
Family deserted
Dark side asserted
With the Devil you flirted
To his powder converted
Forsake responsibility and all that it entails.
You're ridin' the rails.
Such intoxicating power! Truth beside it pales.
You're ridin' the rails.
Things have changed forever more
You're not the man you were before
All that matters is the score
Always wanting more and more
And more and more and more and more!
Frantic search through the garbage for a non-existent bale.
You're ridin' the rails.
Sitting in the dark chewing your fingernails.
You're ridin' the rails.
You burned a deadly hole
Through your nose, your brain, your soul
You're no longer whole
You think you have control
But the Devil holds the cards
And mirrors always break in shards...
Now shallow breathes are few
There's a smell of death on you
Got a brain full of snakes and skin full of snails.
You're ridin' the rails.
Bought yourself a ticket to the land of pointy tails.
You're ridin' the rails.
Don't even try
To brush the lie
From inside your eye
Don't even try
To kiss the sky
It's passed you by
Don't even try
To say you tried
Just lay down and die
Goodbye
8-Ball in the pipe burns like a coffin full of nails.
You're ridin' the rails.
M.E. will read your secrets in the blood of your entrails.
You're ridin' the rails.
You're ridin' the rails.
You're ridin' the rails.
- G. Laidlaw
Life is worth saving.
Not all screams for help come from the mouth.
