That Taste of Iron in Your Mouth

Righteousness is to goodness
As opiate addiction

Is to comfort. Both begin
With a sweet rush through the limbs,

A flush of affirmation,
But end by wholly shredding

And devouring the one thing
That they most seemed to affirm.

There is no lasting comfort
Once opiate addicted—

At last, no comfort at all.
There’s no enduring goodness

From righteousness—in the end,
There is no goodness at all.