savors smoke

through
dark-grey mesh blinds
out into
the dull sky over
Parma

I stare at great clouds
of pearl
and slate

and time peels and smells and
savors another mandarin orange
while I watch,
reclined back-beyond-horizontal
in the dentist's chair
the clouds swooning slightly

her hand
crosses my face
her other hovers
over my mouth

I reach for my mantra,
an addict
a smoker reaching for a pack
I draw the words into my chest
with my breath

time savors smoke now,
smells drill on bone

my gaze is riveted
I repeat my mantra harder
a bird, blurred by speed,
crosses the upper left corner of the window
and is received
by the sky