A girl with lips the color
Of raspberry sorbet
Takes a drag of her last cigarette,
Or so she says.
She dips a small wand
Into a barrel of soapy liquid,
Reflecting her face in rainbows,
And her raspberry lips form a kiss
As the wand lifts toward her face.
She blows her smoke
Into an expanding bubble.
And it slides on the surface of the wind.
I am enraptured by the way
She combines her innocence
With her sin.
Creating cloudy spheres of soap
That float away and explode
Like a foggy memory.
They evaporate, and so does she.
She is vague and misty
Like a crystal ball,
She knows the future.
She knows that her
Sparkling, perfect circles
Will fall away to the sky,
And become part of the atmosphere.
But in her mind, they’re already gone.
And she has followed them,
Resigned to non existence,
She dissolves slowly
Until all I can see
Is her silver smoke breaking free
From its transparent shell.
And she smiles.
Vicariously all-knowing,
With lips the color of raspberry sorbet
Waiting for the sun
To help her melt away.

(Photography by Callie Huber)