NEPHART.COM

i asked the smoke

fresh from its short trip to my lungs

how long will you stay in the air

it did not answer

it only drifted

but the smell stayed

longer than it should

like a memory that refuses to leave

i knew it would not speak

still i thought

maybe it would sit with me

for a while

keep me company

tell me stories

about the lungs it just visited

about the narrow passages of my throat

so i smoked again

just to see if it reacts

and it did

not with answers

but with the wind

it swayed away from me

further and further

until it reached a place

my eyes could not follow

and suddenly

it felt like someone

someone who quietly entered my heart

stayed without noise

and left the same way

no goodbye

just disappearance

into thin air

but something stayed

a trace

a weight

a presence i cannot remember clearly

so i ask myself

how do they erase everything

and still leave something behind

how do they leave

without saying a word

so

i smoked again

and again

and again