Right before Going in

you can put up with anything,

says the guy outside the dialysis

place, some lady he's with

lighting his

salem

one of those days when

color is just plain gone

like it's been shut up inside its own

little purse

and there are animals

on the periphery

brown deranged and slightly mangy

but good-hearted

on the edges of the blacktop

not hiding, just

sick of putting up with shit

and that guy

there smoking in his

wheelchair

waiting to go in

there's this strange intention

in every little throb

now, this

momentous

nothing, and yet still he is

sucking in

metholated smoke

that evergreen candy vapor

letting it go

a glamour from dry purple lips

that white cloud

churning out of a

chimney at xmas

in some

storybook in a thriftstore

let's enjoy this moment

let's understand this moment

right before going in