on the smoking habbits of queens

if you look hard, are lucky and patient, you can find the cigarette butts of your favorite kind of tobacco. i don't mean brand--that's too much to ask for, but menthol or regular.

and the variety of brands surprised me. malboro lights i expected, but parlerments? and of course reds, camels, newports, the usual characters

and that's not even the improbable ones: american spirit, lucky strike filters (haven't seen those in years), kents (what my therapist smokes), djarums, merits, benson & hedges, rollies, malboro menthol, the odd european or russian, just to name a few.

and as long as no one says anything to me, i don't feel the burn of shame.

but what it leaves me with, besides the odd smoke, is sorrow.

somedays, i think i'm only posting to get something in my inbox

maybe i should send myself letters.

god knows i have enough postage. if only it were money. wouldn't be rolling other people's butts. and if that ain't a double entendre, well, i need to brush up on my poetics.

pretty tricky, no

so, no smoke.

but i roll. so all i need is some tobac. and where do you find it?

the streets, of course.

outside bars is good. hotels too, but none to close to me.

and main drags also be good.

people putting out tobac all over. no need to even pull shorts--just reroll.

and if anybody asks--you're cleanin' up the hood.

the butt ends of my days and ways

twice, thrice smoked cigarettes.

when you roll, you can take your butts and break them up and roll them again.

it isn't pretty.

but what is when you're impoverished.

the worst part--i don't have enough.