Smoke

Driving through the country you may see

A column billow from the hillside, 

Gray shrouds drifting

Through the dendrite birches.

Your mind, ever fond of melodrama, 

Thinks someone lost a home,

Or is covering their tracks. 

More likely it is just another trash fire.

In the distance 

Our successes and our failures 

Blur together in the haze 

Of that which happens. 

It rises from a cigarette

As night grows stale at the bar,

Swirls and eddies

In glamours of its own demise.

Its moment is a mood,

Pervasive as the smoke 

And just as hard to grasp. 

Try to capture it in words 

And nothing will remain, 

The way a cigarette 

Or a body will become 

A non-identity of ashes.

Reviews

[light and ashes]

This is really cool and awesome. I love everything from stanza 3 down. Amazing, and I love the ending. I love the personification of a moment turning to ash. Great stuff, great work.

[Brad Dehler]

Ashes to ashes. So right. I like the visualization of the car ride transitioning through thought. Nice write; of passage...

[W. Barrett Munn]

I like the way you used smoke to move through time and space to tell your story.

Winston

[Casey Truax]

This one started as an attempt to write a “dictionary poem.” The form didn’t work out but you can see the focus of a particular subject in different contexts.

[Red Brick Keshner]

All up in smoke. What a thought to ponder on! Thanks for sharing and jogging the old grey matter.