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Bitches Brew
January 2008
VIRGIN EYES
by M. K. Chavez
Zeitgeist Press (www.zeitgeist-press.com)
2008, 19 Pages, $5.95
When I discovered Debbie Kirk had edited an anthology entitled “Dope,” I thought “finally, an anthology that’s not going to apologize for manifesting the political and existential choice to smash a two-by-four into one’s forehead!”
Well, not exactly. But at $5 a pop from Pink Anarchkitty/Tainted Coffee Press, there is not a better bargain for a quick “rush” from an underground anthology available anywhere in the small or large press this year.
The cover (a gorgeous shot of Kirk, covered in blood, some of which may not all be hers, wearing the damaged temptation of a come- hither hang dog look that says “more please”) and the brilliant introductory prose essay by RC Edrington do nothing to dissuade this. Edrington provides a service by differentiating between the addict and the casual user, particularly of heroin, and suggests that there are a number of users amongst us in society who don’t always fully cave into the junkie life cycle.
“Addiction is a weakness of weak people. It isn’t a disease the psycho-priest
currently makes billions off by peddling un-needed cures and psycho-babble.
I have no use for addicts. But the fact is, every now and then I “need” to
bang a syringe of Horse through my veins to obliterate the fucked up world
outside.”
He is not wrong to suggest this, because the drug culture may be our civilization’s greatest example of Social Darwinism in the present, perhaps because so many of those enlisted are trying to escape that very present. It is ultimately this “survival of the fittest” credo that is the price of surviving in the culture of dope.
Edrington does deny the “addict” label however, and to disown addiction may also be denying something that is fundamentally human in nature. After all, Edrington more or less admits to not wanting to give in to anything (“…as my ex-girlfriend once said, I refuse to give up control to any one thing completely…”) so isn’t control his real addiction, which heroin helps support? More importantly, the conceit suggests drugs can simply be used as a conduit to other identity constructs, perhaps even more dangerous than just that of the “addict.”
Still, one of the best poems in the collection is Ron Lucas’ “Moment of Clarity”:
my name is ron
and I’m finally
ready to admit
i have a problem
with both drink
AND
drugs:
i’m out of both.
Reminiscent of Leonard Cohen’s line “is there anything/emptier/than the drawer/where we kept our opium,” Lucas, like Edrington, gets to the hard heart of the matter…the “what” which keeps poisoning ourselves such a viable option…how the ritual of a suddenly found nugget of rock or weed or a freshly chopped line on a mirror can suddenly make very real and practical problems impossible to feel or remember.
In the end, most of the poems here tell us that drugs are bad (when will those of us in the underground ever figure that out, damn us) but none makes the case better than Iris Berry:
“it was the last trip to 9th and Bonnie Brae
to 8th and Hill
to Wilshire and Westmoreland
that last 3 hour bus ride
and that $20 cab ride
for what
to maybe get well
and probably get burned
it was that last cruise past MacArthur Park
that last 4 am front
still to this day unpaid
it was that last
911 call to Gower and Hollywood
that last three-day crack marathon
on Normandy Avenue
in a car phone selling
carpet crawling
curtain taping
extravaganza…”
- Excerpted from “When The Life of the Party Turns Blue”
Berry is the only woman included in this collection, which is unfortunate. A disappointment was to see no contribution from Kirk herself.
Overall Kirk has done an admirable job here, and provided the drug community with yet another memorable connection to the literary community. She has to be given credit for selecting a number of pieces which recover redemption in the models provided by users and addicts. Even if their endings are predictably doomed, it cannot be said, amongst the many sad sacks presented here, that beauty and power don’t combine to give the illusion of the rush of transcendence and thus freedom.
Standout poems in this vein (so to speak) include the William Taylor Jr. poem “A Girl I Know”, Doug Draime’s “Murray & Marie” and Shane Allison’s “I’m in it for the Drugs and Booze.” It would be nice to see this anthology continue, with some more recklessness thrown in and a larger variety of work on display.
Click here to purchase the anthology.
-Paul Corman-Roberts
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