Winners of the 1st EuroNPUD Poetry Competition
𝐈𝐧 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟏, 𝐄𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐍𝐏𝐔𝐃 𝐥𝐚𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐏𝐨𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐀𝐫𝐭 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐫𝐮𝐠-𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐮𝐛𝐦𝐢𝐭 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝟏𝟗𝟐𝟎𝐬 𝐩𝐨𝐞𝐦 𝐂𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐋𝐢𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐩𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐒𝐮𝐞. 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐠𝐨𝐚𝐥 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐧 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬.
EuroNPUD is pleased to announce the winning poems:
1. “Snowball” by Lee Collingham
2. “Cocaine Lil and Heroin Lou in Two Thousand and Twenty-Two”
by Åsa Matilda Sundvall
3. “Cocaine Lil and Morphine Sue” by Jason Orozco
4. “Dreaming with Sue” by Yamen O’Donnell
Congratulations to the winners
and thanks to everyone who took part in the competition.
The winning poems
Lee Collingham
Lee Collingham
I once knew a girl called cocaine Lil
Who went to jail for selling pills
The best days of her life,
Cos that’s where she met her wife.
Morphine Sue had an acid cat,
A big red poppy, in the middle of her crack hat,
She was horse, from all the smoking,
Lil and Sue were always joking.
Both in dresses adorned with seeds,
Wore a perfume that smells like weed,
Like Sue and Lil, we’re a different breed,
Who focus on harm reduction, not on greed.
Cocaine bowls and morphine hits,
All the guests off their tits,
At their wedding, a joyous day, everyone smoking, snorting, happy and gay.
Alcohol Andy announced them wed,
So off they went, to their ketamine bed,
Empty wraps building on the side, the better the hit, the bigger the size.
The car next day arrived, far too early,
All either could muster is fecking really,
Pack the citric and the spoon,
We’ll need them on, our honeymoon,
And don’t forget to bring clean works,
We don’t want Ill, just to rock our world,
Their cocaine cases and morphine bags,
Off to the airport in a cocaine jag,
Passport check,
thankfully no strip search,
Sue needs her hit before she starts to hurt,
Racing along the runway, on their benzos plane,
Tripping on acid, things will never be the same,
When you see em, call out their name,
Sue or Lil, Miss Morphine and Mrs Cocaine
As they sped towards the moon,
elephants playing silver spoons,
Monkeys smoking, foil in hand,
They’re all waiting for the pilot’s command,
Seat belts on, this cocaine plane will land,
Have your drugs in your hand.
That Carribean sun,
baking on their face,
honest occifer, we’re both straight laced,
We’ve no paraphernalia or any drugs,
We’re on our honeymoon and in love
At the chalet waiting, Phil the pill and Dave the rave,
Dancing on the devil’s grave,
All 4 were there, for just one reason,
Aren’t honeymoons baby-making season?
Then one cold night, the magic occurred,
They felt the movement of the earth,
Smoking coke while eating corn,
9 months later Snowball was born
Now for some they thought, it a strange name,
That Lil n Sue were stoned playing some game,
Truth be known, two girls in love, who love their son and their drugs.
Morphine Sue and Cocaine Lil,
And Little Snowball, loving happily still,
Until there comes a knock at the door,
I just wish they’d stop, this daft drug war
Åsa Matilda Sundvall
Cocaine Lil and Heroin Lou in two thousand and twenty-two
Cocaine Lil and Heroin Lou strolled down the avenue.
Ten feet tall above the ground they levitated along.
Down scampered Speedie Sarah who sighted Lou.
She was almost hopping since she had stopped her pill-poppin’.
Turned to lines and lines that she consumed.
She loved her snorting she told Cocaine Lil and Heroin Lou.
She expressed herself like a vehicle on a high road fuelled with essential oils.
Sarah knew speed was her ordeal.
It was her gig, held to heart so dear.
She was ecstatic and downright real hyperactive.
Amphetamine could be given to her for free by doctors and hospitals you see.
The path in her brain made the way worth snorting the stimulus train.
A trail left her to simmer down. Feelings of composed inside.
Self-possessed and ready for the show.
Creativity in efficiency as she rambled by. Leaving the other two girls behind.
Cocaine Lil and Heroin Lou kept on walking down the avenue.
Swaying above the ground never to look down.
Some people would stare while others glare.
Was it their style they dared to show?
Cocaine Lil on high heels, a long coat that fluttered as they’d go.
Heroin Lou wore buffalo boots and shimmery swimsuit, a red poppy with seeds that she painted on her sleeve.
Yet veritably the excluding stares and glares were their mirror in hand. Insecurities in symbiosis with nescience that came running after theirs. Presented with eyes running like stairs. Resembling an elevators care.
But Heroin Lou wore her suit.
Nobody could take her down. After all she was ten feet tall above the ground.
Ten feet tall by the black tar in her stream that kept singing within.
She safely injected herself every day around six, made by a supervised fix.
If seen glorified on screen they wish they could meet someone like Pill-Poppin’ Peete, Speedie Sarah, even Troll or Keith.
Play imagined on a show that’s rolled on Netflix with a romanticised toll.
A reality fantasy close and far a stray.
Heroin Lou picked up her pipe while Cocaine Lil snorted away on her
white line.
“Hurray” at us on the street she said,
screaming out loud so the people could wake up and feel a little inside.
Cocaine Lil and Heroin Lou held hands and kept on walking down the avenue.
Jason Orozco
Cocaine Lil and Morphine Sue
Did you ever hear the story about cocaine Lil?
She lived in a mansion up on Pill Hill
she lived with her bestie friend Morphine Sue
together these debutants would light up a room.
Lil, she was a pretty girl a petite little thing
with a golden heart and porcelain skin.
Sue, now, she was a chocolate delight
with dreamy eyes that would light up the night.
Together our girls they plotted and schemed
to come up with the ball of the century.
As this was a time when the world was sad
that decided to give it all they had.
There were Champagne fountains, an opium den
rivers of whisky and gin,
a cocaine bar with a butler
handing out silver straws.
Oh what a party, oh what a night.
It was a cosmic affair
completely out of sight
Oh what a party, oh what a night.
So this is the story of Lil and Sue
that lived to please everyone they knew
they probably lived life a little too fast
but if you want to live sometimes you gotta hit the gas.
_____________
(An adaptation of the song played by 'The Back On Track' – Mykonos 2021)
Yamen O'Donnell, Complicated Reality
Dreaming with Sue
Yamen O'Donnell
I met her at a party, friends call her Morphine Sue.
She said she had a secret to keep away the blues.
She had soft fuzzy hair under the hard club lights,
and asked me how well I planned to sleep that night.
We wandered back to her place, where she gave me the tour,
wasn't much more there than a mattress and a floor.
"Who needs more stuff when I have enough to dream?"
and she pulled out a couple pills so she could show me what she means.
She dreamt about a fireplace, she dreamt about a fire,
every time she'd start to wake, another pill to get her higher.
she dreamt about the limelight, she dreamt of outer space,
while I held her and beheld her pretty, silent, smiling face.
She dreamt us a vacation, an island getaway,
in her dream we'd hide inside, and dream the days away.
She asked me if I liked it. I said I didn't know,
her dreams sure sound amazing, but it's hard to see the show.
I dared to dream about romance and what we could become,
she told me, if she's honest, dreaming sounds a lot more fun.
So when my dreams were finished, only one thing left to do,
I left, and wished my best to the dreamer, Morphine Sue.
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Read more at the EuroNPUD site:
https://www.euronpud.net/poetry-and-art-competition
