By Misti Velvet Rainwater
Date: 18 September 2000

You Smell and Taste Like Smoke

I call you Smokey the Bear
when I'm feeling affectionate
when you come to bed
smelling and tasting
of cigarettes
tonight
you tell me
to quit torturing myself
you smoked alone
on the porch swing
in the cold
remembering
last spring
when everything was pristine
BRAND NEW
crimson and clover
not fucked over

I'll go out to the car now
and find the bag I filled with our essential stuff
so when I say
Good-night
I love you
that will be
enough.

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