Poem For Joey

I'll never forget the day mom brought you home, so tiny and cute, a babe all alone...

I would creep to your crib side, and watch as you slept, and cradle you tight in my arms when you wept.

Growing up as the youngest, so clever and cute, so funny and wild, with red hair to boot.

You were always my shadow, when you were a kid, always threatening to tell mom and dad things I did.

But I loved you anyway, brother of mine, and I wish, oh I wish, we could go back in time.

With all of my heart I would turn back the clock, and all of your pain from addiction would stop.

I would cut off my arm, my soul, I would sell, to save you from using and killing yourself.

What is it your seeking and hope that you find? Your just skin and bones, can't you see? Are you blind?

Your wife and your children are home all alone, but your on a mission, your high and your stoned.

You lie to your family, and steal from your friends. The lengths you will go to get high never ends.

When you look in the mirror, what do you see? A haggard old man with no hopes and no dreams?

Just trapped in a hell, all bridges are burned, still lying, still dying, with no lessons learned.

I want my old brother back, not this stranger I see.
But the one, way back when, who still laughs with me.

Not this stranger I see who just lives to get high,
I want Joey, my brother, PLEASE choose not to die...