80th Street
by Megan Crayne
every few hours
in between coffee
staring at screens, meetings
(and the rest of life that
has followed us
home)
we gather:
grinder (mine)
glass container with flower (Dutch split)
TOPS rolling papers
American-grown (or not, if unavailable)
American Spirit loose tobacco
glass pipe (mine)
multi-use tool (for when necessary
to remove stuck flower from the pipe)
lighter (electric green, black with the logo
for a local delivery service, multi-colored
floral, black, or burnt orange, all yours by
the virtue of your sticky hands)
I study the way your fingers
push tobacco and flower
together, folding
the paper deftly,
tightly; unlike mine
that pinch and ache
and betray me when
I try on my own
you reach out
to finish it for me
we smoke
and sit in quiet
dusk
and in isolation
with one another
we (or really, I) am
leaning,
growing
into the new
Image: Stuart Buck is a visual artist and award-winning poet living in North Wales. His art has been featured in several journals, as well as gracing the covers of several books. His third poetry collection, Portrait of a Man on Fire, is forthcoming from Rhythm & Bones Press in November 2020. He is the art editor for Konstellation Magazine and available for commissions all year round. He can be contacted via Twitter or E-Mail
Megan Crayne is a writer and poet living in Portland, OR. She enjoys watercolor painting and designing interior layouts for print books and Ebooks. You can follow her on Twitter or Instagram at: @megancrayne
