Sucking down smoke
in the battering rain.
Cold hands cupped,
protecting faint flame.
Are they that desperate
to end it-
that they’d
brave the rugged elements,
to drain life
from their withering chests-
huddling toward
only the solace
of rest?
Half of me aches
to fling the door wide
and sternly
as a mother
demand
they all
come inside
and stop this
cancerous
nonsense.
My other half,
aches to join them
apathetically
as a teen
whose ready
to speed up
the painful
process.
But all of me
stays
and watches
as these
shivering
escape
artists
vanish into
misty rains.
All of me
stays
and watches as
they drag
again
and again
and again.
pm poetry 