the full-time job with no Christmas
we had to cop for that nite and tomorrow AM still which was XMas and had to cop in advance, its’ a never ending strugle its’ a full time job to stay straight and there is no vacation for XMas at anytime.
Context
The cage at its barest, decades below Ennet House's threshold: staying "straight" here means not high but not-yet-sick, and keeping it means an unbroken logistics job — copping for tonight, tomorrow, the holiday, always in advance, no day off ever. The disease is rendered not as pleasure or even relief but as labor without wage or vacation, a chase that fills every waking hour.