Ray Miller

Analgesia

We reel ‘em in with Ritalin,
(Big Pharma pockets the profit)
Viagra and the Vitamin –
it gets so hard to come off it.

Increasing dependency doses,
the playground exchange of bright sweets;
damned by a dual diagnosis,
the endless prescription repeats.

To manage stress a bullet-proof vest
is obligatory in these quarters:
the weight you can’t get off your chest
when there’s statins in the waters.

In the theatre critical poses
are struck at an unwilling heart;
before the final curtain closes
you’ll need permission to depart.

The freaks and loners seek revenge
on all those who disrespect them;
they don’t say much and have few friends -
they’re on the autistic spectrum

and exempt from human weakness
in our analgesic Eden
where all suffering is sickness
and susceptible to treatment.

Ray Miller © 2014