Cycles Poem by Alessandra Liverani

Addiction is a cycle which goes round and round and round
It starts off making you miserable, then when you are lying on the ground
Oh, it shows a little compassion and lifts you up a short while
Only to return you back to the depths, but it has so much guile

That you only think it picks you up, only plays the good guy
It would never toss you down, only lifts you way up high
Something else it is which brings you down, crashing to the floor
And if you knew exactly who, you would show them to the door

This cycle goes on forever, programmed in your mind
You’re on a never ending treadmill with good and bad entwined
The high does not come, without the low preceding
It’s a tricky situation, which is unmistakeably misleading

If you reason in your mind that you are better off
Going round and round this cycle, surfing the crest and trough
Then you will go round forever, forever in a spin
And probably realise when it’s way too late, much to your chagrin

(Sydney, Australia - 2003)