Portrait of my family as a pack of cigarettes
- Portrait of my family as a pack of cigarettes
I’d barter your lifefor a brief orangeflame & a lungful
of peace. My whole familywas like that, tobacco-stained, curling
a little at the edges.Singed. Wheneverthe wind rose, a few
blew away, easyas an exhale, & we let goin the way one does
with paper, smoke.Until the box layempty, on its side,
in some dump. Now and thencold hands wouldfumble it, in hope. [End Page 178]
Melissa Stein is the author of the poetry collection Rough Honey, winner of the 2010 APR/Honickman First Book Prize. Her work has appeared in Southern Review, Harvard Review, Best New Poets, and other publications, and she has received fellowships from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, and elsewhere. She is a freelance editor and writer in San Francisco.
