You Can See the Smoke From Late Last Year

You can see the smoke

From late last year

He was sitting

At the bar

And knocking back

And lighting up

Back when you could do that

In a bar indoors

The place isn’t around anymore

They put a Subway there instead

The sandwich place

Not the mode of transportation

Although there is a subway stop

On the same street

And this little bar

That all of us used to go to

Back when we all lived together

In the sense that we kept

Moving in with each other

Then moving out

And then moving back in

With other people

In the, I don’t know what

You would call it--

The friend group?

I think we wanted

To be friends

Like from the tv show

But none of us

Had any money

Or rent-controlled

Giant apartments

I had a job

But it didn’t pay well

Not well enough

To make any kind

Of life for yourself

In the city

So I would go on dates

And the guys--

The guys would ask me

If I wanted kids

And I’d say--

Can you afford kids?

I used to be shocked

That I was on a date

With a guy

Who could afford kids

But then

Once I talked it out with them

They’d realize

That actually

They couldn’t afford kids

And they’d get sad about it

And I’d have to

Call them a cab

Eventually I just stopped dating

I just...stopped

But one night

I go to this bar

And there’s a guy there

Drinking

Drinking a lot

And smoking

And smoking a lot

Smoking in a way

That was noticeable

In a way

I had never seen

Smoking

Be noticeable

Until that moment

The bar was so small

And his smoke

Seemed to fill up

The entire bar

And the bartender

Who, at the time,

I really wanted to sleep with

But never did

Looked at me

And at the guy

And he goes--

You can see the smoke

From late last year

I didn’t know

What the hell

He was talking about

Because the line

Didn’t make sense

I almost thought

I could hear

A director yell ‘Cut’
And a writer come on-set

And change the line

But instead

The guy kept smoking

And drinking

And I kept smoking

And drinking

And when I left the bar

That night

I looked behind me

And there was a Subway

But there was nothing

That could

Take me

Home

That’s what I remember

That I all I wanted

To do

Was go

Home