Exhaling
Grey grumbling
Storm clouds
You sit
So artistically
Arms and legs folded
You form beautiful human origami
With your elegant thinness
Paralleling paper
So enchanting I almost forget
You are not impervious to cancer
Nudging that thought to the back of my cortex
I allow myself to drift with the smoke
And tumbling out of your mouth
I drift onwards, upwards
Away
Lazily but surly
Step outside
This time when you exhale
It’s the air in your lungs
once again I cling to
Anything from you
Even something as empty as this air
So for a moment we’re frozen
Transfixed
Hanging without context
Sitting out in the cold
Things become clearer
You can see the product
Of working lungs
And unblocked trachea
Carbon monoxide
I call upon lessons and remember
This is also poisonous
And that some folks
Breathe fire to earn a living
Wonder if you could be the first
Greatly acclaimed poison breather