The Best Poison

She was in a bad way

   When she said that hope is the poison of the romantics . . .

   But,

Hey,

   Who doesn’t love a little poison every now-and-then?

A little booze

   Some nicotine

40-100 grams of Sugar

   Kinky sex

A hit or four of weed

    Sprinkle on some mushroom dust

And add reality tv

   And shitty cop/hospital/lawyer shows

We all sip on some poison

   Don’t we?

. . . Don’t we?

We cheat 

   We lie

We lust

   We are never satisfied

We chase rabbits around tracks as the rich place their bets on us

    We fight

We hate

   We divide 

We break bones

   And destroy thrones

Just to create new ones 

   We build towers

Just to watch them crumble some day

   Ain’t it all poison?

So what if the romantic microdoses on hope?

  There are worse poisons. 

The only thing the romantic has to do is 

Never lose hope. 

Because without it

The withdraws are

. . . Lethal. 

But, personally, 

I think it’s the best poison of them all.

CH 2/15/25