Ashes

Ashes
dropping to the floor
from the cigarette
I hide behind,
Fidgeting with my hands
empty and calloused.
Cellophane wrapper,
burning blue
in the ashtray
on the bar.

Breathe in cancer,
breathe in destruction,
breathe in numbness.
Hold it.
Hold it longer.
And exhale
everything I am not to you.
That I never was,
that I never will be.
Dissolve that dream person.

Music melts around the corner,
broken down soul revival.
Words and drumbeats and solos
wrap their hands around
the small of my back,
Lifting my chin with the kiss
I have waited for
all
my
life.

You walk into the room
and that dance,
and that dance,
and that dance
which is all mine,
which is everything I am,
fades to the background
in a room lit
only by
signs for cheap beer and booze.

We go home
and are silent.



Shannon Foley