Cigarette Smoke

Just something I thought of as you were leaving me. <3 September 2013

The city sounds all rush together

Like white noise

On a record I can’t stop playing.

 

If I close my eyes,

And you hold me closer,

Cars sound like gusts of wind.

 

Your emotions surge through me.

I feel them

In my own bones.

 

You’ll leave tonight,

With your love

That keeps me warm in the evenings,

And your smile that lingers

In this space

Long after you’ve departed,

 

And your cigarettes.

I’ve grown to like

The way they smell.

 

I hate the way

They smell

When others smoke them,

 

But I miss the way

Yours smell

While we sit and talk and listen.

 

Maybe I’ll

Smoke them too

Just to pretend for a moment

 

That you aren’t any farther away

Than the smoke

Curling around the walls of this building,

Rising playfully,

And dissolving into

Empty space.

 

 

 

You calm my broken mind

In ways

You will never know.

 

In your deepest sleep,

The pulse of your heartbeat

Pounds like gentle horse hooves

That drown out the city’s white noise.

 

As persistent as

My panic is,

Trying to leech onto me

 

Like a parasite that wants me

Never to resist,

Or learn that I am able,

 

You are relentless

In your protection over me;

My love, you always win.

 

Tonight you leave,

And with you,

A piece of my soul resides.

 

And with me,

A part of you lingers

Like your cigarette smoke;

Curling around corners

And dissolving

            Into

                        Empty

                                    Space.

 

 

Author's Note

Please give feedback. I am pretty excited about this piece!

Reviews

[Coyote Poetry]

I like the use of the cigarette smoke to make your point in the poem. Simple things we will miss when someone leave us. A good story in the excellent poetry.
Coyote