MULTUM NON MULTA
All addicts’ angels know the needle’s pain
Is point enough for multitudes to dance.
Still one may fill that infinite expanse
By spreading, when I stick it in the vein,
Like wings and justly pinioning my brain.
My love is such an angel—in a glance
Anticipating need, she seized the chance
To enter where I bleed—and why refrain?
Her words like wine do tempt intoxication
Yet stimulate the mind and soothe the heart.
An ailing soul requires its medications—
And better to continue once you start,
To risk withdrawal, to die from complications
Than to bid so bright an angel to depart.
14 lines with 5 rhymes and none sounding forced! The angels are angels of addiction and an infinite number fit fit on the point of a syringe. Never the less one angel expands and transforms into a predatory bird. That is the 1st 5 lines. Then the love enters - an angel or a predatory bird? Ambiguously both: anticipating need, stimulating the mind, soothing the heart - but doing so like a drug which risks withdrawal or death - but which is two bright and beautiful to give up! This is a rich poem.
Really like the exploration of the topic, and the flow fits. Thanks for sharing.