I stopped smoking five years ago
but it’s creeping back into my memory
iron-rust like taste of cigarette tars
lung piercing acidity
is a luring trap against this pain
started chewing on colorful starbursts
it’s saccharine strawberry lemon
that soothes acrid pulses of this pain
but it’s a cookie trail to a slow diabetes
staring out the window of fall sky,
I wonder when this pain will be over.
11.3.2021
Ralph with Coffee 