Illinois boys hang out at a party while, 

one boy’s mother works on her Bachelor’s degree. 

The kids surround themselves with 

opioids, methamphetamines and fentanyl.

But the one boy didn’t want anything to do with it.

He kept saying, “I’m good.”

He didn’t have a choice, though. 

“All the cool kids do it.”

“All of us are doing it.”

“All of us are having fun.”

Doesn’t sound so bad then, right?

Everything around him starts shaking.

The music vibrates his brain.

Everyone experiences fun except him.

His insides burn.

Everytime he pukes, it hurts.  

His heart beats fast like a locomotive.

Everywhere he goes, he can’t stop sweating.

It beats like a speeding car. 

Eventually it all halts,

and his life ends 

like that. 

Eighteen, dead of an overdose.

His mom had to skip class,

to see her baby boy one last time.

“I don’t have drugs in the home. I’m good.”

Drug addiction doesn’t feel remorse. 

It all started with Illinois boys at a party, 

and ended with another overdose death.

His death was one of more than 3,573 in Illinois alone.

I encounter peer pressure all the time.

I don’t do drugs and I don’t want to.

I was just a Wisconsin boy, at a party,

escaping what could have been me.