Shadows & Dust [poetry]

Blessings, A Prose Poem

Midnight smoke rises from within spindly shadow, minaret-cast. Mingled scents of mocha, cream, tobacco, and something musky haunt the hungry seams of his travel-weary clothing. He traces constellations with the cigarette's lightning-bug cherry, some he's made up on the spot. 

Somewhere, in a distant city, there's a girl desperate to hear all about his adventures—probably more than one. Better to sail to foreign ports yourself, though, whenever possible, as circumstance allows. But he's not thinking about that, or indeed about any of them. His thoughts, his stories, are his own.

And yet, there's a girl who recalls hearing about the Buddhist monk who offered him leftover rice at the hostel in Lithuania. She'd asked him if the monk might have blessed it. He wasn't sure. Years later, eight years of silence between them, she realizes food shared in the spirit of love carries a blessing all its own, every time, as do gifted memories.