Eddie And The Dragon Poem by Kim Barney

This is not a poem.

It is the true story of a person I will call Eddie.
That is not his real name. I chose that name because back in those days I did not know anyone named Eddie.

It is not a happy story. If you do not like sad stories, stop reading now and read one of my humorous poems instead.

Smoking was against our religion.
One day in Sunday School class the teacher told us children:
Now just remember this. If someone ever invites you to smoke just say you can't because it's against your religion.

Years later, when someone did invite me to smoke, who was it? None other than Eddie, a member of our church who had been there that day in that same Sunday School class. I declined his invitation.

Soon Eddie was smoking regularly, but not openly. He tried to hide it. He carried a tube of toothpaste around in his pocket. After smoking a cigarette, he would eat some toothpaste, breathe in my face and then ask me, Can you smell it now? If I said yes he would eat more toothpaste and ask me again.

Premarital sex was also against our religion, but Eddie managed to get a girl pregnant. He didn't want to marry her, but her parents insisted. They stayed together long enough to have five children, then finally divorced.

Somewhere along the line, Eddie started playing the game Dungeons and Dragons. I've never played it but I've been told that it lets some people become subject to the control of others. He became addicted to the game and played it to the exclusion of everything else, much like many young people of today becoming addicted to video games.

He was obsessed. He was late for work, then finally stopped going at all. Playing the game was more important than eating or sleeping.

Finally he had enough. His suicide note included the line:

Tell Mom, sometimes the Dragon wins.