Vandita talks about substance abuse and how it leads to deaths of children, in this poem, exclusively for Different Truths.

Another gloomy day beckons me

To the streets where I once loitered

In gay abandon

Scurrying with a carefree gait.

How reckless and unkempt was I then.

A grim and horrific sight

A steely eyed, hooked nosed rake

Luring a lad to ecstasy

Or so, he claimed.

A white powder that promised him

Good grades, vibrancy, prosperity

And the promises went on…

The boy was duped into a trap

He would never wriggle out from

Until he finally succumbed

To Death’s frozen paws.

Two others were entrapped within minutes

Soon children swarmed in hoards,

Trying to exchange pocket money

For this sweet poison.

Their hands tremulously shrugging

The other customers eyeing their place in the queue.

I could see a bleak future,

I could see Death lurking around,

What a vicious trap it was!

©Vandita Dharni

Photo from the Internet