DFW MONKEY: The Real Juice of a Dope Monkey Runs Strong

 I got the impression that the county will not babysit you unless you are a real danger to society because I was only there for a few days after being arrested at the juvenile school. When you become an adult is when they will get ya', and when this occurs, happy birthday cause they are through jacking around. The state will send your ass to prison or state jail in a heartbeat, especially if you have a damn public defender assigned to your case. This was the last case I would catch as a minor, luckily it was two months before I turned seventeen, which is the age you start going to adult jail for being a jackass and breaking laws in good ole' Texas. I finally finished my 'sentence' at that damn juvenile school and attended Keller High School once again for the remaining few months before the summer of '99 began.
       In the stories that chronicle the summer of 98' I failed to mention something that is of major importance  to the theme of my old ways, and how the seeds were planted for my extended entanglement with opiates.  I can't remember if my first indulgence of heroin occurred before or after my excursion to the West Coast that summer, but at this point I am sure there isn't much significance in knowing exactly when it was. I know I had impulsively abused LSD, valium, ketamine, cocaine, weed, and alcohol so far in my young journey with chemicals. My compulsion to alter my state of consciousness, bound together with my dangerously naive curiosity spurred this need to experiment with almost any and every chemical I would come across.  I placed heroin high on my list of priorities, not just as a substance to try as soon as I could allocate a source, but ridiculous as it sounds I was obsessed with this above all other priorities in general. As taboo as heroin is I ignored all the warnings of its dangers and listened with open ears to all those voices of my peers and the section of the media and hollywood that advertised heroin as an existential wonder that produced some of the most sensational euphoric effects above all other drugs known to man.
        T.J. lived in one of Keller's half a dozen trailer parks, which can be found less than five minutes away from rich neighborhoods where people such as Dallas Cowboys players have been known to reside. I had known T.J. for a couple of years now and we were mainly acquaintances because of marijuana, not much else. I had many friends like this that would hit me up if his usual weed guy was out and vice versa, I would swing by his place if I hadn't much else place to turn.  We also went to school together, and he was quite a pot-head but a decent person nonetheless.  One day one of his buddies which I believe lived in the same trailer park mentioned heroin when I was hanging around getting stoned with these guys. "Finally!" I secretly thought celebrating inside all the while trying to refrain from showing too much eagerness in this drug I had been fantasizing over for too long. This guy had a hook up from some older lady right there in the trailer park which was less than five minutes from my parent's house at the time.  I don't remember the name of T.J.'s friend, nor can retrieve any semblance of a mental image of his face, but I do remember that he taught me about 'chiva', which is a common way to make 'tar' heroin into a snort-able substance. I began buying capsules that were pre-cut into chiva for ten bucks a pop, snorted one and the 'horse' races were on (horse is one of many slang words for heroin). I was wrapped in this warming-rush of calm and serene confidence. I smoked weed along with it and found the ultimate combo, my choice above doing any and all other drugs if it was there.  The problem as with anything I did was I wanted to do it all day everyday and as much as I could do in one given moment provided I had enough money.  This stint only lasted three days but it had me feeling dependent already. I tried getting some again after the third day and apparently the chic he was scoring from had ended up in jail.  I felt very uneasy and on edge already craving madly for it, and I had only been using heroin for three days. The high I got was incredibly unique, and on the other end of the spectrum how quickly it caused me to fiend for it was very shocking.  I guess I am lucky he wasn't into needles because the course of my life would have been negatively altered even sooner.  I didn't inject heroin until a good year later.

D.D.Monkey's poetry: CREAMED NOSTALGIA

There came a turning of some casually jointed events,
they figured how to placate the actors egos,
and time bent them to their knees,
those memories streamed via the internet smooth as the cable bill,
nostalgia creamed any relative regrets,
and those players in the scene weren't all naive to the rearranging,
a slanted breeze mixed with this morning's lax,
spurned a sweet chill as if we had never left that cradling fix of genesis's green-scape.