Opioid Addiction

Such detail I cannot understand to seewhat his brother told me, seeing hisoldest brother on the toilet, a needlein his leg; yet Hanes had gone too far to wheedleout of this stupor, if that's what it was."No hope without dope" was his motto.

In his fifties his brain's diseasecompulsively seeking changeshis mind set on pot when he pitched for the Ramswhen he was strong and twenty, revving his cycle on one wheel in townsaround just to show he could.What brought him beyond opioids? He would

scoff and call them O-Pies, popping morefor Opie Taylor of The Andy Griffith Show or forhis backyard possum to salute North America's only native marsupial;he would pfft again; when Reuben and I went to Rexto find him sitting up in bed, we wondered what would be the endof this once would-be athlete, now dependent on opiates.

Terror binds every climbing second of the day.His withdrawal elicits more than I can say.He never went through detox,as far as I know. His life's filled with phloxeverywhere, perennials a womanwho loves him grows; children and grands, too, companions.