Spoken by someone watching a person they love disappear into addiction, "addiction" is a poem of pain and helplessness. The speaker is crying, and the opening plea, "Can't you see me", shows how invisible they feel. The smoke in the poem seems to stand for the substance itself, and it fills the air, chokes the speaker, and drowns out the other person's ability to think clearly.
The feelings pile up quickly: betrayal, heartbreak, and a sense of being lost. The speaker also sees the other person with a harsh clarity, calling their reality "pitiful," yet the poem keeps returning to tenderness. The mention of children suggests the speaker is imagining a gentler world, one where innocent people aren't harmed by this kind of suffering. The "haggard breathing" that seems to whisper "help me" is the poem's most painful image, because the speaker hears a cry the person can't say aloud.
The mood is raw, tense, and sorrowful. The final line, "I love you but i cannot save you," lands as a quiet admission of defeat.