Cigarette Lighter
for D.V.H.

1.
God has no step-children

2.
like millipede with a thousand legs
with a thousand feet

half or more or less of these, West African
the rest from some part of Great Britain

all the black, all the white
either to one side or the next or all mixed up

millipede with these legs, with these feet
unable to figure out how to run
with all these limbs
moving in opposing directions

3.
if you’re mad, write a poem
if you’re angry, write a poem

broke or unemployed/
broke and unemployed, write a poem

down and out in Nassau or in Freeport,
in Exuma or Long Island, write a poem

though no body wants you
when you’re down and out
pick your pen up, pick yourself up
along with intellect, along with imagination
write a poem, write several
to hurl like stones as far as you could

possibly into posterity
posterior upon white, cold commode
to pee, for pure relief

4.
her car, like a retarded child,
she insists upon going about with

however much it pitches a fit
or refuses to budge


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007