The Mad Poet of the Year blog posts share the poetry of a long-time Mad Poet. This year-long appointment provides readers with a deep dive of the writer’s work and thoughts on poetry. We are thrilled to have Tonita Austin (aka Toni Love) serve as the Mad Poet of the Year for 2023.
I Want to Be Your Addiction
by Tonita Austin aka Toni Love
I want to be your addiction
I want you to dream of me
Wake up thinking of me
Can’t wait to touch skin with me
Put your hands on me and let me take you to ecstasy
Hold me and desire me
Inhale me absorb me or savor every drop of me
Fold me into your physique like my dress folds into my inner thigh
I want to be your addiction
I want to possess your mind
Flow through every curvature of your body
Make you want to get up out of your warm bed at night just to have me
Full body sweat and fever when you desire the dope of me to be within you
I want to be your addiction
I want you to need me
To breathe me
To spend your last dime just to fill your atmosphere with me
I want to take you higher
Make your heart sing
Change the neurons in your mind
Make you lose track of time
I want to be your addiction
I want you to be a fiend for me
To concede that I am all that you need
I want/ to/ be/ your/ addiction
This is one of my favorite poems to perform because I love to see who really gets it in the end. This particular piece was inspired by a song "Stop the World" by one of my favorite artists, the late Teena Marie.
We've probably all been in those relationships where our emotions are being pulled in every direction and even though you may love the person or be extremely attracted to them, you know that it's not healthy for you and that you should end it.
Sometimes it takes you a while to get off (pun intended), but you eventually do!
Tonita Austin also known as “Toni Love” is a gifted poet, singer, activist, and writer born in West Philadelphia. While attending Columbia University, Tonita was a student of Amiri Baraka and performed in Ntozake Shange’s “For Colored Girls” as the Lady in Orange. Her writing is influenced by both experiences. She is a contributor to the anthology The Black Body and featured poet in the 2018 and 2020 Winter/Fall edition of the Philadelphia Arts and Urban Literary magazine. The Restoration EP is her first published recording; Toni’s Room is her first published book. Toni currently resides in Media, PA. For more info, visit www.tonitalove.com and https://tonilove.hearnow.com/.