Demi

Demi

Stoned for the first time

The girls lays a cigarette on the table.

She puts her chin down on her arms

And studies the tip

Cool, still, and brown

Dormant

If she did nothing

The cigarette could stay this way forever

If she lit it

It would smolder black

Then flare red

Turn white

And flake away

Never whole again

Demi stared at the cigarette for 30 minutes

Never lit it

Not that one

Though someone else did

But she thought of it

Every time she got high afterward

And looked at the tip

Of every cigarette she smoked

It was like looking through time.

(8/30/18)