by Kashiana Singh

After the news article that states the Sacklers
are one of America’s richest families thanks 
to OxyContin.

I am vigilant, aware
of the toxins that will
meet me at the other
side, of overdose
pain relief, diagnosis
uncertain, symptoms
idiopathic

I am vigilant, aware
of a mold, ensnaring
my crumbling
crumbling spine
now a hollow
vestibule unspoken
brittle anger, when
dispensed will ravage
into white sediment, let’s call it
Sackler residue

I am vigilant, aware
of my dilated pupils
a sputtering monastery
of my own preaddicted
self, subsumed by
itself, eroded
into scars, each tissue
a flickering grave of
once euphoric memory, of
palpating nerve endings

I am vigilant, aware
that when I am
exhumed, my cells
will disperse unhinged
into a corpse, a circuit
of malignant fingerprints
crawling rampant, leaving
perforated marks on
my parchment, a fitful
fitful pain, numbed
by double doses.
&
&

Kashiana Singh

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Kashiana Singh is a management professional by job classification and a work practitioner by personal preference. Kashiana’s TEDx talk was dedicated to Work as Worship. Her poetry collection, Shelling Peanuts and Stringing Words presents her voice as a participant and an observer. Her poems have been published on various platforms including Poets Reading the News, Visual Verse, Oddball Magazine, TurnPike Magazine, Dissident Voice, Feminine Collective, Spillwords, Poetry Super Highway. You can listen to her reciting her work on a couple of Rattlecast sessions. Kashiana lives in Chicago and carries her various geographical homes within her poetry.

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