Cigarette

Touches your lips. Reach.

Hits your mind. Hold.

You hold it at a distance. Close.

It’s closer than the closest. Know.

You stare. You think. You know, you know.

Inhale. Breathe. Take a drag. Live.

Blow out the smoke, blow out the ache.

Reminisce, evoke, induce, reduce.

 The smoke comes back to you,

The haze moves away from you.

 Puff puff puff.

The fire burns out, the ash fades away.

Puff.

You brush aside the seemingly trivial.

You embrace the obviously dangerous.

It challenges your crowded solitude.

It calls out your closeted sensations.

Physical, mental, psychological, real-

Reflexes are there for you to choose.

It takes a little of your life away.

You live the rest of your life with it.

These burns don’t flake the skin,

They turn the frost.

These flames don’t light the fire,

They roast the smoke.