Friday, October 13, 2023

Three Cigarette Lighters - poem

 

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

Dispatches for the Colonial Office

 

Three Cigarette Lighters

 

 

And in what landscape of disaster
       Has your unhappy spirit lost its road?

 

-Thomas Merton, “For my Brother”

 

 

I was strolling along for my digestion and health

Inspecting the refreshing October winds

Counting the summer-tired leaves floating to earth

And noting the brightness of autumn’s yellow flowers

 

Off in the weeds a cigarette lighter presented itself

It didn’t work. A second cigarette lighter did

A useful souvenir of my evening walk

And then a third – three cheap lighters, all in a row

 

A cocaine trail of disposable dreams

Disposable lighters, disposable lives

 

No comments: