Lady of our Dreams

Memories of my addiction to heroin in the 1980s

The Lady of our Dreams



She descends in amorphous vapour

A sleep-inducing creature

Vegetable and soothing

Like nettles and iron.



Dirty and nauseous

A scattered dream

Numbing and total

Like drowning in champagne.



The pain of knowing you

The rusted joints

It’s equal to nothing

Except slow death.



I taste you always

You brown skinned girl

Come on my lips

Vomit scented breath



Transfixed to the icon

Crucified with needle

You lucid nightmare

Eternal and empty



Fix me a fragrant

Mixture with lemon

The itch of abyss

Tween heaven and hell.



c: The Dogbreathes

1980