DRUGS Poem: “Hits Different!” 08102025 NR, by Nicholas Rock

Flick, but for one moment

lest the flame lick the world down

kid, you oughta know better

hit it once more, you damned fool

hold the flag just right,

give it color now

deep breaths now — feel — feel

better they than you I say, oh come

I told you to lean in close and smile

snatch the other side quick you

snuff it out with the little ones

be you war and love and dumb, cry

now we’re just as everyone and lie

blame the wind for pushing you too

let your eyes be filled, good vibe

mock the sun and sky and shine and die

kiss the scar and tongue the screen and be

breathe, now the clothes are plundered walls, falling to the skin like stars

pull the plug you’d once dreamed up, to the bowl it goes and grows and

freedom means obey

eat — kill — die — feel

this one here’s for rotting times and books and iron bars and life —— Cheers!

fastly turn the channel friend, crawl inside with open chest

fan the flame upon your feet

you are going higher to

the lowest that you’ll ever be

when they come to call you down

show them what they bade you be

screaming at the end of you

——just never tell them you got it from me