Cigarette stubs

Are you sure you want to buy those

she asks as she passes me a pack

with pictures of people on the front

who look like me if

I were shrivelled, exhausted

little cigarette stubs

that had trouble breathing

which I do because I don’t answer

but instead look at her while she looks at me

and I notice she looks like those pictured people

with their sunken faces and eyes unseen

and teeth black and spoiled with joy

though she does not smile

just dings the cash

and I cash the ding

and I think how we both

have been forgotten

by the Universe.

*

I love my boyfriend,

she says

as I kiss her

and she kisses me back,

both of us wondering what

the other is thinking about

but are too tongue-tied

to ask.

*

An ambulance

veers by when

the sun is at its highest

leaving a shadow

in front of me

that has my shape.

It makes me choke.