Edges Magazine Issue 26: The Rattle Won't Kill Them But The Using Just May

EDGES MAGAZINE Issue 26

July/Aug 2001

The Rattle Won't Kill Them
But The Using Just May

My eyes are streaming like a waterfall,
Don't Know if I can handle this at all.
My body is shaking like a windswept tree,
Having a fix is all I can see.

Hot and cold like a dying ember,
The few good times are all I can remember.
My stomach is turning like a carpenter's lathe,
I wish a hit I did save.

My head is screaming, "Use, Use, Use."
Feels as if I have no freedom to choose.
Score some gear or do my rattle,
What a really unfair battle.

Rattling won't kill me but it feels that way,
At least this is what the professionals say.
It's getting worse and I'm feeling colder,
By the minute my bones are growing older.

Then I get a call from my Mum at home,
Steve's been found dead all alone.
Just the one fix is all he had,
Don't know if I feel good or bad.

Some aches and pains and sleepless nights,
But no overdosing, Prison or stupid fights.
I will not die, just regain my life,
Get a job; find happiness and a wife.

Two weeks later and I'm feeling ok,
Telling others that it's true what the professionals say.
Others who are rattling, feeling the same way,
The rattle won't kill me but the using just may.

Lee Robertson