The Weight of Addiction

In the quiet of the night
I hear the echoes
Whispers of a battle unseen
Fought in the shadows
Where light can’t reach

Another hit
Another breath
The needle speaks louder than life itself
Chasing a high that never lasts
Each moment borrowed
Each breath stolen

There’s a silence in their eyes
a story untold
a war waged on the inside
Where the hunger never fades
Where the demons always itch
They say it's just one more time
But one more time is a lie
A lie that holds hands with despair
And dances with death in a twisted waltz

But can you hear the cry?
The shout lost in the smoke
The scream caught in the veins
Fading into the numbness

We talk about recovery
Like its a place we all can reach
But what happens when the door is locked?
When the key is lost in the bottom of a bottle
Or buried beneath the weight of a pill?

I see the stories in their faces
The hollow eyes that once sparkled
The hands that once built
Now shaking
Trembling
Chasing nothing but a fleeting escape
But who’s really free?
The ones who walk away?
Or the ones who never make it out alive?
We say addiction is a choice
But tell me
When did the choice begin?
When did the first step into that dark place happen?
Was it the first time they felt unloved?
The first time they felt unseen?
Or was it just the first time they took a step into a world where no one tells you how to breathe?

So let's not speak of them in whispers
Like they’re ghosts that haunt our streets
Let's speak of the pain
The hurt that’s not always visible
The battle of bodies, hearts, and minds
That never stops
Never rests
And maybe
Just maybe

If we start to listen
Start to see
We can find a way to end the silence
To bring the ones we’ve lost
Back to a world where they can breathe

But until then
We carry their stories in our hearts
And their echoes in the spaces between words

Forever waiting
Forever hoping