"tweakers" poems
a dark place,
dingy and cobwebbed:
the forlorn basement
below an unfinished house;
there is no hope
of an HGTV house-flip
or a makeover
or the sort of boring/heartwarming story
where some nice white family
—or conveniently diverse—
sets up shop,
smash-cuts through a renovation
and gets their dream home.
no,
the house will remain gloomy,
this basement filled with emptiness;
no one desires
to come through the door,
no one except the tweakers
and the vagabonds
and the runaways,
the ****** and the pimps,
the celebrities and psychiatrists,
the demons and the ghosts,
the preachers and their seething
congregations of judgmental ******
that live across the street,
and the ***** teenagers
hunting for a place to try out ***
no cleaning crew
or maid service
or organize-your-life guru
or even the most experienced
of all the world’s janitors
could enter this house and clean it
or beautify this basement
or disenfranchise the squatters within;
the neighbors just try
and demolish it
every chance they get,
to rid their sparkling, spotless community
of this disgusting eyesore.
Dec 5, 2018
Dec 5, 2018 at 10:15 AM UTC
Took the 17 down nicollet
Passed the City Center
Passing time
Passing men on the streets with an open guitar case
Passed the kids with their skateboards
Passed the guys covered in ink playing fight night on the street
Fifth street
Yellow cord
Brake peddle
Bus stop
Sidewalk
The sharks fight the jets
Romeo goes to Juliet
Old men with canes talk on their cell phones
Nicollet and 4th feels a little heavy tonight
11:47 comes my bus
Down 4th ave
Passing time
Passing the former home of the Twins
Passed the cops with their lights on
Passed some kids in their visors
Red light
Doswell street
Yellow cord
Brake peddle
Bus stop
Sidewalk
Out on the street
Street lamps glow fluorescent
New moon fixed in the stars
Tilted, slightly
The tweakers stay in the shack down the block
They’ve got the rocks in their socks
And they’re sleeping on the carpet
Welcome mat turned over
Shades drawn tight
And an icy cold feeling runs in their veins
And they roll back into a dream
Apartment building
Stairwell
Door 10
Living room.
Sep 18, 2012
Sep 18, 2012 at 4:22 PM UTC
Tweaker Tweaker
Did you eat any dinner
And Have you showered
Tweaker Tweaker
How long have you been awake
When's the last time you had real sleep
Or is everyday maintained
W/ 10mins every half hr.
Tweaker Tweaker
Do the shadows still appear
Are the voices the only thing you hear
Is what you feel inside your skin
Even real or just made up in your head
Tweaker Tweaker
Do you even care
The ones you love miss you so much
Do you even care
You've lost your life before 25
Tweaker Tweaker
Please get better
Reach out for help
Put the needle down
Drop the pipe, hear it shatter
Blow away that line you just crushed up
Tweaker Tweaker
It'll be alright
Your loved ones are still near
They still care
Reach out for help
Don't be scared
Everyone only wants to help
Tweaker Tweaker
When you quit
The devil will shout
It won't be easy , count on that
It will be worth it
You'll get to live
So try your best
Beat past this, you'll get through this
Slowly but surely
You'll make to 100 days sober
Reunite with all your loved ones
Employeed with a growing family
Is what will come
When you decide
It's time to end the Devils game
So
Tweaker no more,
but a lady or gentleman
Good for you
You've come far
Keep your mind positive
I'm proud of your sobriety
Congratulations
You're living
& now you see why
Sobriety was always worth it
Tweaker no more
Lady or gentleman
How was the meal you just had
Was the shower the best you've had ?
Did you finally get some sleep
Were you able to escape
the shadows and voices from in your head
Tweaker no more
Just admit
This is the best you've felt
Since your first time trying crystal
You feel human finally
There's no going back
To tweaker island
You won't make it out
The second time around
So hide your very best
Keep yourself busy
And talk out loud
When you feel like
you Might relapse back
into tweakers land.
With no chance to survive another night
Mar 10, 2016
Mar 10, 2016 at 5:49 AM UTC
I ate a whole bag of
cheetos one at a time,
savoring each cheesy bite,
and watched two seasons of
South Park as my friend tried to
hit a vein.
**** man. I got little ones, they keep rolling.*
It took her hours.
Forearm
Shins
Wrists
Other arm
Calfs
"What the **** man, why even ******* bother? Why not just smoke it like everyone else?"
******* tweakers*
She says the high is worth it.
*That rush, man. Holy ****
But really,
no matter how ****
they are,
or used to be,
nobody likes
a spun out
tweaker *****
Nobody
Sep 7, 2014
Sep 7, 2014 at 6:36 PM UTC
Apple bottom *******
I take time for snitches
Stitches for fourth degree burns
I’ll meet you in the ditches
The trenches
The sneakers
The benches
For tweakers
Let’s be family on the further side
Of normal
Let’s be ******** on the closer side
Of formal
I rhyme when it comes to me
I shine when she **** to me
Oct 24, 2013
Oct 24, 2013 at 1:25 PM UTC
Look at him twitching
You know he's tweaking
His jaw swinging back and forth
But there's no speaking
See's something down
In the carpet twinkling
He gets all excited
You know what he's thinking
Anything he finds
He's going to be smoking
I wouldn't be laughing
Because he ain't joking
Down there for hours
Refusing to fail
Doesn't even slow down
After smoking toenail
Smokes up almost
All that he finds
He hears a noise
Now he's peeking through the blinds
He's been smoking too long
And he's up all night
Doesn't have a job
But that's alright
He's finds a dumpster
And without any warning
He's dives in searching
Til the early morning
That's just the life
Of a tweaker you see
Always out hustling
To get his **** for free
If you see him at night
Approach with caution
He's got a stink about him
Because ain't been washing
Picking at his face
Til his sores are bleeding
A light and a mirror
Is all he's needing
He finally got busted
Now he's on parole
Has to hide his drugs
Up in his ********
It's a shame, but that's the way
A tweaker gets by in the world today
His family don't want him
And he don't have many friends
His life is cut short
And that's how it ends
Everybody knows him
But no one knows his name
They just refer to him
As "That dope smoking Lame"
Sep 9, 2015
Sep 9, 2015 at 2:42 PM UTC
This is for the doers and the seekers
the straight arrows and the tweakers
this is for the movers and the shakers
the hungry, unemployed and the money makers
this is for the girlfriends, and the secret ******
the ungentlemenly men and the ones who still hold doors
this is for listeners and the hearing deaf
the right wingers and for the liberal lefts
this is for the child who's awake at night afraid
and for the parents who'll regret not being there one day
this is for the academic scholars, and the high school dropouts
the meek, quiet talkers, and the ones who curse and shout
this is for the homeless and those braking banks to afford their mortgage rates
the healthy ones and the ones who's lives are in the hands of the fates
this is for the elderly and ones who's lives are not yet found
this is for you my brothers and sisters
for it takes all kinds to make the world go round
Jan 29, 2011
Jan 29, 2011 at 3:55 PM UTC
tweakers tweakers everywhere. there's barely room to stand.
little knots of junkies nod. i think they're with the band.
ravers... rolling. round and round. chewing fruity gum.
cokeheads chatting. chatting chatty chats. i feign i'm deaf and dumb.
stoners take it all by calm. in need of nothing save visine.
drinkers drink. until they puke. get sad or just plain mean.
pill poppers pop to **** the pain. or relieve life's daily stress.
remember!
you can always do a little more but not a little less.
Mar 19, 2014
Mar 19, 2014 at 7:44 AM UTC
Zillions of tweaking bums
Sitting here and there some are rambling non stop
Others are rolling the glass ****
Or WITH a rig in their,arm
Sometimes you see a few tweakers
Staring at the the pipe begging
With crocodile tears these we all know as fiends
Drama fills the little shack
Stolen electronics array and ***** needles in every trash can.. as well is outside on the ground
Sad and pitiful
Jul 24, 2016
Jul 24, 2016 at 3:08 AM UTC
Mopin' in an overpriced motel
Trying to decide what items I can sell... Well, what's few and far between
Hardly any parts are even left of me
though THINGS do not define us
Take a peek in my chest cavity
You'll see I am righteous
High-strung Yet somehow Vibrant
Here it is, kids
'Tis the season of unrest
There's no sleep just tweakers
Screaming obscenities
In shadow corners
**** **** **** "godammit"
Im watching his sanity go
Right out the door
Is it the allure?
OR
Perhaps its the warm bed?
That's keeping me from leaving right along with it
I bite my tongue til it becomes
Blood red
Before I know it my mouth
Begins mimicking my head
And I'm yelling ...
****** I can't stand it, get your **** together man!"
Oct 22, 2018
Oct 22, 2018 at 5:39 AM UTC
when the time is right
when the times are good
I lived in apartments smack dab in the hood
I remember the tweakers and the town drunks
use to knock on my door when I lived in the slums
Use to give them water
and a place to sleep
woke up thinking will they be there to greet
they always were gone
And I fell back to sleep.
the moment I moved away from this place
I felt kinda fake
pretending I was rich
And my heart felt fake
I still often wonder if they knock on the door
and instead of a couch they get a curb or a floor
Mar 29, 2013
Mar 29, 2013 at 2:20 AM UTC
I'm not going to get better
It's not like that
This disease doesn't go away
There is no cure
But oh, there are symptoms
Paranoia, cynicism, and distrust
To name a few
I've heard it's my burden to bear
A toll for artistry
Which I tolerate, that is
Until the next bout sets in
Like now.
Now I am driven to madness
What a ******* up world we live in
Where nice girls turn into tweakers
Where people never change
Where we will always rather drop the bomb than talk it out
Where people hide from their feelings
That is what you're all afraid of, isn't it?
The kinds of conversation that spin out of you
Are remarkable
You'll talk of anything save the things on your mind
Fearful
Fearful of what?
Directness, no, we cannot have that here
I would much rather discuss
The grazing habits
Of a cow
I'll just get as much music and writing out there
As I can
Before I combust
And rejoin the nothing
Feb 18, 2011
Feb 18, 2011 at 7:45 PM UTC
A garden trowel in a patch of irradiated weeds
An odometer in an endless maze of MickeyD's
An encyclopedia in a pawn shop full of tweakers
A love song on a boombox with broken speakers
May I present several examples of useless things with nothing to do
Now if you think those're bad, you should see what I'm like...
*
Apr 9, 2021
Apr 9, 2021 at 10:10 PM UTC
3am....boom!
Door slams, feet pounding on stairs.
4am....boom!
My household remains asleep, Only me and my cares.
They come in all colors,
different flavors,
unique fears,
No status quo,
different walks,
All sorts of careers
The business owners,
The urban campers,
The highschool dropouts,
Grownups still in Pampers.
Theres even the alumni,
with their bumper sticker,
All taking a medicine,
that only makes them sicker.
All the while, the thoughts harbored within-
Makes me think, this wall we share, may as well be paper thin.
I smell the smell,
Made a call with a cell,
No help from the ones dressed in blue
Just me and myself, seeing it through.
The war is mine,
The battles they own,
Let it end, before this wall we share,
Becomes their gravestone
Oct 5, 2019
Oct 5, 2019 at 9:26 AM UTC
Seen hundreds and hundreds
and I know exactly why
Tweakers steal and lie
Tweakers cry
and Tweakers die
Brain fried
and barely alive
Always Jonesen'
to get another high
Just another day
in a Meth-Head life
Beautiful girls
too soon turned
old and decrepit
Yeah we know
your sick
and you say
you can't help it
Sell their soul
and their body as well
Just another **** day
in Tweakers Hell
You stand up and say
then what is the cure?
Nobody knows
but death will do.
-R.
(10.16)
-LA
Sep 4, 2017
Sep 4, 2017 at 7:28 AM UTC
There was an Old Man with a beard,
Who said, "It is just as I feared!—
Two tweakers, a rat, and a Jellicle cat
Have all built their nests in my beard."
There was an Old Man of Connecticut,
Who possessed an innate sense of etiquette;
He'd lay down the fork to the left of the spork,
That mannerly man of Connecticut.
There was an Old Man from Earth's center,
Who left it and couldn't reënter;
He crawled out a hole like a man who's a mole,
And lost his way back to the center.
There was an Old Person of Skye,
Who spent his days wondering, "Why?"
When they asked, "What's the word?" he replied, "Haven't heard,"
That discouraged Old Person of Skye.
There was an Old Man of Seattle,
Who had an attraction to cattle;
Considering bovine anatomy _so_ fine,
He prodded the cows of Seattle.
There once was from Thessaloniki
A man who was geeky and greeky;
An avid fanatic of things democratic,
He voted in Thessaloniki.
There was an Old Person of Perth,
Who buried his gold in the Earth
And then plum forgot whereat was the spot,
That forgetful Old Person of Perth.
There was a Young Man of the South,
Who mouthwashed with whiskey his mouth;
He spoke with a drawl, saying yes'm and y'all,
That drawling Young Man of the South.
There was a Young Person of Boston,
Who wandered around and got lost in
The Chinatown section with a raging ********
That poked out an eyeball in Boston.
There was an Old Person named Lear,
Who surely was scroobious and queer;
He sat rather fat, and Old Foss was his cat,
And he couldn't abide ginger beer.
Mar 24, 2025
Mar 24, 2025 at 5:00 PM UTC
Cracks form aside eyes of-
tweakers.
Heads down-
shuffling.
Stop. Smile. Beg.
Might as well fetch too.
Dark alleyway stops.
Shoot up.
Shooting down the block.
Stop. Smile. Breathe.
Heart racing.
Stand-
shuffle more.
Place to place,
Block to block,
Light after light,
Searing your pride.
Downcast eyes.
Prestine scowls.
Plastic smiles.
Stop. Smile. Beg.
Furrowed brows.
Echoed no's.
Fold in half,
"God bless."
Yelled, **** no's.
Who do you think you are?
Get a job.
Don't beg.
Shuffle back.
Empty parking lot.
Shoot up.
Stop. Smile. Breathe.
Shoot up.
Stop. Smile. Breathe.
Shoot up.
Stop. Smile. Breathe.
Shoot up.
Stop.
Smile.
Break.
Body no more.
Soul gone long before.
Jul 28, 2017
Jul 28, 2017 at 3:29 PM UTC
Just as soon as the emotion comes in
The emotion has vanished from my ten fingers
Those god awful tweakers have failed me again
Like a mouse on speed, I’m running into the streets
As I revel across the kitchen floor
Socks drenched in dirt and adolescence
I find that the only true time I’m happy
Is staring at the screen in my mind
Watching life whisper in my ears
Veins pop out like a loud mouth
I dream of two dozen men
Walking a tightrope toward me
And I only find that none of them
Have made it, they only fell
Down to another who loves them so
And just like that, I’m walking it too
May 25, 2018
May 25, 2018 at 8:15 AM UTC
Home is where
The wrong word is a slap
crying is a belt
noise is
cigarettes on your back
Home is where they hurt your dog to hurt you
Where the boyfriends come and go
Where the drugs and flesh
are sold
Home is cops
Pounding on the door
Drunks passed out on the floor
Kids asking for more...
Food
Home is needles
it’s pipes
It’s tweakers trading their lives
for a high
Home is spoiled milk in the fridge
Empty boxes and cans and
Roaches crawling
Everywhere
Home is burns and bruises
Scars and stitches
and frequent
accidents
Home is damp ***** stained carpet
smells like ****
I want out of it
No matter how
Oct 13, 2018
Oct 13, 2018 at 1:15 PM UTC
Pinky ring slingers,
Watch as my brothers get put in slammers,
Watch as my brother’s get hung from swingers.
Every day, every week I hear cries and gospel singers.
Every day, every week I hear gun shots and tweakers.
Trauma runs deep, our community the titanic,
All we get is static from a government,
That watches along as we sink here.
Treating it like collages cause they hearts cold as winter.
Where our cries go in one ear than out the other ear.
If the Statue of Liberty was a person,
They’d probably evict her.
I guess one may say that,
Equity has become as real as flying reindeer.
It’s cute that some think they understand the pain here,
Just because they watched Naruto.
Now, that’s what I call taking a big leap sir!
But the truth is you’ll never understand kiddo.
You may be lost now, but so too was Nemo!
Just gotta accept it like the fact that,
Han first shot at Greedo.
Dealing with the same **** since existence,
But we refuse to fix the broken toilets.
Flushing away the vulnerable.
**** a safety net.
Dealing with the same **** since existence,
But those in power keep their phones on silent.
Letting people fall through the cracks,
Thinking it’s priceless cause in their minds they’re worthless.
Yet ignorant ************* still can’t seem to fathom why we upset!
In fact the buggers uno reverse the subject.
Like they are the true victims,
Cause intersectionality displaces them.
Must really **** to be viewed as the problem?
Get over it darlin!
Tell me more about how it feels to not be pardoned for your skin!
****
Straight up, Got ‘em.
Got they hands up but still shot em.
Got barely any food to eat, still robbed em.
May have been hit with a rock bottom.
But they still don’t know what it is to hit rock bottom!
So, shut up and **** on my *******
***** I’m not playing,
***** I’m not joking!
Dealing with the same **** since existence,
But we refuse to fix the broken toilets.
Flushing away the vulnerable.
**** a safety net.
Dealing with the same **** since existence,
But those in power keep their phones on silent.
Letting people fall through the cracks,
Thinking it’s priceless cause in their minds they’re worthless.
May 25, 2023
May 25, 2023 at 4:38 PM UTC
Paint me.
Leave your somber wooden floor.
Move to the chaos.
Paint me.
Meet the trees,
erected in the concrete.
Go mad, grow stupid.
Compare. Compare. Compare.
Hide from the outdoors.
Compare.
Paint the trash.
Slick blacks and browns.
Rats, tweakers, and mud.
Become.
Compare.
Paint me.
Mar 21, 2022
Mar 21, 2022 at 11:48 AM UTC
It was ever only for freaks geeks and tweakers
for hyper borderlines to decypher,
when alone he is times and times he listens to these rhymes
streets ahead
Forgive the gimmick that was becoming so good
Like some things you never trully owned
Best tricks you pull are the ones you sold
Greatest thing I ever felt felt so ******* cold
Feb 9, 2022
Feb 9, 2022 at 3:00 PM UTC