Smoke Break

Rings are made: gaseous jewels. Through the corner of the mouth The world is rising and falling Slowly; cities white and misty Are under her eyes, around her head, Near her resolve, doomed to linger. Afternoon oddly blackens moods. A poverty of spirit shades Recrimination in ten minute intervals, But there is never more time; Miniscule pleasures come In short breaths. Now comes misfortune: If she's late for her drudgery, She'll be there with purposeless eyes; No doubt settled into wary sockets, Because where else could she be? Perhaps on Coastal Highway, being a friend, Or on hills, near skiers, far removed? Nothing expands but the chest Of her; nothing can expand Or grow. Nicotine eyes Know deadness, know the shop Walls, knows what holding them up May mean; exasperation, An infinite searching, Slipping through cold clean air. Everything is alive and nothing Lives. Inhaling breaks The distance, the heights Between low clouds and The open tears. Exhaling Releases the only ghosts known, Lingering within vacations of grayness.