- Marlboro Mediums, soft pack
The flannel that inhaled them
keeping my secret safe
- The vending machine at the college
on the other side of the woods,
no ID, no problem
- Cigarettes smell like fall leaves
and look like lakes,
Chuck Taylors circa 1993
- My mother threatened
the Exxon employees who sold
me cigarettes on Christmas
- CJ’s mom bought me Parliaments
after I took his virginity but
before he was institutionalized
- for bleeding the way
I’d taught him, on cigarettes
smoked after school
- Cigarettes kissing the pages
of my teenage diary
and my inner arms
- Smoking from my bedroom window
and stubbing them out on the siding
giving myself away
- The warm glow of his Swisher
Sweet as he massaged my feet
in the moonlight
- Bidis from the African House
and the three months I thought
I’d ditched nicotine
- The half-smoked cigarette
I extinguished when he told me
he didn’t think I could quit
- Never smoking again
except for the time I was told
a hand-rolled cigarette was weed
- The vape pen a woman
half my age left on my nightstand,
her sock beneath my bed
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