“SWALLOW”

Had to take my pills dry,

not a drop of water I thought

to acquire for my single hotel room 

in the rainiest, Amsterdam. 

Still, it was not as tough to swallow 

as the sight of you leaving my life.

Now I’m washing it down 

with the soily pewter taste 

of a hand rolled cigarette 

and the song you played for me

on the cruelest of thursdays.

M.L. May ‘24