Patience and Nicotine
PATIENCE AND NICOTINE
“coffee, two sugars, hold the cream please”
home made filtered cigarettes
bitterly cutting the cost.
too many books on the floor and the walls.
he cooks dinner – chicken and au gratin potatoes –
“put more potatoes. it lasts longer.”
cars speed on M-72 – noisy speed –
the dog licks herself desperate
with nothing else to do
birds chatter from one cage to another
and I am lost in normality
with my freedom strangled
in dusty curtains and a sinkfull of dirty dishes.
“do they have cats in Baghdad? CNN didn’t say.”
car insurance is due – life is due.
he cooks dinner
“did you put more potatoes?’
I wait for what is mine,
maybe a knock on the window
in the morning or at midnight,
but he kisses me and rushes in the kitchen.
today I look old with my life at a lent starving
I’m unplugged from today – no spices
“how was your day?” “fine. yours?” “fine.”
slice, spice, butter, bake.
I didn’t laugh or cry today
no twittering of blue birds
just screams and groans of a mad beast
that bites foaming, clawing the wrinkled skin.
we are two old statues in the park
and pigeons **** on us
because we forgot to be drunk on foolishness.
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