[Cigarette after cigarette]

Cigarette after cigarette.

We assemble, we talk, we judge.

All evening, I appear red-haired

through the eyes of the smoke.

As my other self drifts through a wasteland . . .

That unutterable blue light!

Every leaf—trembling—

on the sorrowful aspens.

Heaven’s drowsy vaults step apart,

a bright beehive comes into view,—

“Oh my stepdaughters! Stepsons! . . .”

nature breathes.