Phillip Morris

Phillip Morris
Kevin E. Cleary

Discarded remnants
of moments of stress,
carcinogenic tenants
in a lonely ash can.

Minutes burned away
by nervous gestures.
Gaseous nicotine swayed
in the changing wind.

Such mixing of brands
and mingling of personalities,
the corpses lay in grainy sands
and scattered across the area.

And each had a filter pinched,
or grounded-up tip, reluctant
about the coffin toward which they inched.
With one last fiery kiss and a flick,
the smokers mourned the moment.