chemical

I wake up to the neon glow

Blind eyes see only dopamine

Addicted to the screen of

Cartoon dreams spinning

finger skimming down in a blur of white light

Head hidden under the duvet

Fighting with common sense

I tense at the thought of leaving the bower

Swim for hours in the chemical stream

Until the power starts to run low

Then plug in and go to the sink

Drink a cocktail of synthetic healthcare

Pour sulphates on my hair

Stare at my pallid skin and cover it in chemicals

Fluoride for teeth, bleach to whiten, radioactive gels and creams

Compounds I can’t pronounce weighted by the ounce

To maximise the great value of the science invested

Years tested in a lab, coloured face paste

Make you look like a magazine

Shiny, glossy, cover-ready chemicals

On my eyes, slathered on cheeks and thighs

Smoothing out the lines earned over weeks and years into a soft girlish pout

Experience faded to a shade of doubt

I step outside and breathe deep

Take a lungful of petrol fumes

and kick oil slick from my boots

Nab a pesticide protected, genetically enhanced fruit that would put any brute to shame

Slip some caffeine juice down the drainpipe

Swipe a puff of nicotine

Anesthetize clean my brain with a painkiller pill

For that migraine that just won’t quit

And when my day spits me

Splat on the street

There are chemicals to eat

Sucrose, glucose, monosodium glutamate

Sodium nitrates and high fructose corn syrup

Alcoholic ethanol powerful enough to numb the ache in my guts

Ifs and cigarette butts drowned in colourful chemical soup

Till I droop with saturation

Maturing, pickling, tickling, buzzing, breaking,

passing out and waking up to the neon glow