Seattle Smokers

You can't walk down a street in Seattle

with a cigarette in your mouth

and expect to have a pack left

by the time you get home.

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It doesn’t happen like that.

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Your cigarette

while a hazard light to non-smokers,

is a candle in a dark cave of tension

to the rest

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and they will ask you

if you can spare one

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they will ask you

if you’ve got a light

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“Can I get one off you, man?”

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It’s been a hard night.

They pat their pockets—

all out.

Run their hands through their hair—

They’ve got the craving

That you obviously understand.

They form one hand

into a gentle claw;

ready to grasp panic-relief.

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By the time you reach your destination

you’ve talked to more strangers

and smoked fewer cigarettes

that you ever wanted to

on a dark city street.

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The unwritten code

that if you smoke, you understand

and if you understand, you commiserate

and if you commiserate, you share

and share

and share

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after all,

they’d give you one, too

if they had it.

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