Sick Boy

Abstract

This poetry collection explores the concepts of addiction and redemption. It does so through a series of vignette-style poems set in the Baltimore and DC area at the height of the heroin epidemic in the United States. Split into three parts, the first addresses the narrator’s initial drug use, the second follows the narrator at the strongest and least hopeful point of his addiction, and the third examines, through various scenes, the narrator’s attempts to find a life free from the confines of addiction. Although dealing with subject matter derived from dark and unfortunate circumstances, the narrator’s heroin addiction serves merely as a catalyst for the various situations that force the narrator to develop emotionally and grow even when trapped in the seemingly inescapable confines of addiction.