locomortis

when you're on a train with somebody for a long time
and one person jumps off
because the train is getting old and rickety
you'd think the other one would yell, or something
and ask why the other one was doing it
or ask them to stay

but the reality is that they don't and will not
and they will ride that train to the death

it's odd, backwards, awful
cathartic, like quitting smoking
when you're dark and busy and
you can make black puff tar fill your lungs and eat
tissue and bad feelings

you want
to go buy every pack of cigarettes
and get back on that fucking train

but instead
you sit under a tree
and ponder
in the heat
and wait for someone else to stop by.

nobody gets to go home
when home is cigarette cherries and railroad tracks