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Blurred image of a person lost in the snowy woods
Photo by Its Adonis on Unsplash

I saw my generation destroyed by a great plague.
Men and women reduced to boys and girls.
The rot and decay of humanity.
Sorrow bled in rivulets of sound
Pour’d forth a cacophony of silent screams.
Brothers and sisters lost. Not dead but dreaming.
Never to return. Never to awaken.
Eyes vacant and bodies muddled about. Listless. Decayed.
They shuffled, no longer human.
Devoid of that which makes one alive.
And in this disease of mind and destruction of will,
Many comrades were lost.
I remember her eyes. Black and glassy. Dead.
She doesn’t even know who I am
And that she once loved me.
I remember his face. Once fat and healthy.
Now skinny and frightening. I lost a friend.
Too many casualties to count.
The desiccated husk of my generation.
The aimless, wandering, shuffling dead.
Forever trapped in the worlds of unawakening.
Bleeding toxic waste. Exhaling death. And fragments of metal.
The plague that destroyed my generation.
The plague that is called
Meth.
Your Swansong.

Disclaimer: The views in this article are those of the author. Prison Journalism Project has verified the writer’s identity and basic facts such as the names of institutions mentioned.

Daniel X. Cohen is a comedy and drama writer and is currently working on screenplays and short stories. He serves as a facilitator for self-help groups. He is currently incarcerated in California.