By Stuart Barnes
Blister-white tablet engraved with ‘ENDONE’
on one side, break bar the other.
It does not take the place of your doctor
or pharmacist: opium or morphine:
Accident or Emergency.
Store it below ground, above ground, in
an unlocked cupboard. Store it in the bathroom,
store it near the sink. Leave it on every
window sill, leave it in the car. Swallow
it before meals with a glass of nausea.
Do not show your pupils, abnormal,
do not show your restlessness, do not show your goose
-flesh, do not show your fast heart rate, do not show your new
-born child to a doctor or pharmacist.
This poem was previously published in Glasshouses (UQP 2016)
note: ‘ENDONE® Oxycodone hydrochloride 5 mg’ remixes some of the text from Endone® oxycodone hydrochloride CMI (http://www.mydr.com.au/medicines/cmis/endone-tablets)