ABOUT THE POEM: “Perennial” is a stark, unsentimental exploration of desire, addiction, and human survival instincts, emphasizing the transactional nature of lust and intoxicants. The poem presents flesh and meth as universal commodities, consumed anywhere on earth, indifferent to time, place, or circumstance—even extending to extreme scenarios such as apocalypses, zombie attacks, or alien invasions. Demand persists, supply inevitably follows, highlighting the inevitability of human craving. By portraying addiction and indulgence as both biological and profitable, the poem strips away moral pretenses, framing acts often stigmatized as “respectable trades” in economic terms. The repeated imperatives—“Get addicted. Get vulgar. Get cheap. Get full of lust.”—underscore both the compulsive pull of desire and the potential to master it, transforming one from a mere consumer to a “boss.” The imagery of veins, stomach, and godowns blends physiological, economic, and corporeal realities, emphasizing the universality of craving across all strata of life. The poem’s tone is clinical yet visceral, presenting vice, profit, and survival as inseparable forces. “Perennial” confronts the reader with an unflinching truth: desire, addiction, and transactional survival are perennial, unavoidable, and indifferent to morality, circumstance, or human aspiration.