Night Repurposed

“Insomnia IV” by Jeffrey Batchelor

 

the quotidian cough

that punctuates

sleeplessness

soundscape for

verses emergent

from years in the smoke

of combustible passion

the inhale and exhale

of words in their work

to acquire a burnished

poetic patina

indulged by the taste

of their metaphor

labored of breath

but accustomed to

unquiet habits of hours

long since repurposed

given over to making

a literate noise

 

 

Meerschaum

Image from pinterest.com

virginal white

Turkish sea foam

yields easily

to a delicate

carver’s touch

becomes animate

with classical

face or form

of allegory

masculine

of moment

a vessel for

burnt offerings

of aromatic

tobacconist art

sweetened

through time

and ambering

to claim place

among prized

possessions

 

 

(originally posted April 2013)

Cigarettes

Image from pinterest.com

death dances

its lulling ritual

in the soft gray undulance

rising from my fingers

I nonetheless savor

warm Mesmer tastes of him

drawn from his embering leaves

around and across

my decadent tongue

pulled down

down and into

the centers of me

where I trap sticky filaments

gluing his powers

all his terrible powers

releasing the rest of him

thinned and diminished

encircling my taciturn face

while I wait

in my centers

wondering

when fortune or fate

will subsume

his ugly dark residue

(originally posted April 2013)

Habit

 

James Dean in “Rebel Without a Cause” 1955

 

 

I turned to it back at too-tender an age
when a dollar an hour was minimum wage
when the white house was home to Mamie and Ike
and my ride was a nameless old coaster-brake bike

it was unfiltered Luckies or Camels I’d smoke
and it took a few weeks to learn not to choke
we’d roll up a pack in our tight tee-shirt sleeve
like James Dean before his crash taught us to grieve

it’s quite likely that every word I ever wrote
had a nicotine birth in the back of my throat
though I might gain some years if I cold-quit today
what the hell good is time without something to say

 

 

(originally posted December 2013)

Huqqa

 

 

“Hookah” by Baraholder

 

 

wet smoke lays down in languorous lungs
condensation to sweeten a bubbling glass
Turkish pipestem draws vapors round tongues
for savoring shish burned in bellies of brass
the mood climbs a flight of transcendent rungs
to a mellow state bourbon alone can surpass

 

(originally posted January 2014)

Meerschaum

Photo from tumblr.com

 

virginal white

Turkish sea foam

yields easily

to a delicate

carver’s touch

becomes animate

with classical

face or form

of allegory

masculine

of moment

a vessel for

burnt offerings

of aromatic

tobacconist art

sweetened

through time

and ambering

to claim place

among prized

possessions