Smoking - by Elton Glaser - I like the cool and heft of it, dull metal on the palm, And the click, the hiss, the spark fuming into flame, Boldface of fire, the rage and sway of it, raw blue at the base And a slope of gold, a touch... Read more →

The Best Cigarette - by Billy Collins - There are many that I miss having sent my last one out a car window sparking along the road one night, years ago. The heralded one, of course: after sex, the two glowing tips now the lights of a single ship; at... Read more →

The Cinnamon Peeler - by Michael Ondaatje - If I were a cinnamon peeler I would ride your bed and leave the yellow bark dust on your pillow. Your breasts and shoulders would reek you could never walk through markets without the profession of my fingers floating over you. The... Read more →

Handbag - by Ruth Fainlight - My mother's old leather handbag, crowded with letters she carried all through the war. The smell of my mother's handbag: mints and lipstick and Coty powder. The look of those letters, softened and worn at the edges, opened, read, and refolded so often. Letters... Read more →

Toast - by Leonard Nathan - There was a woman in Ithaca who cried softly all night in the next room and helpless I fell in love with her under the blanket of snow that settled on all the roofs of the town, filling up every dark depression. Next morning... Read more →

The Weakness - by Toi Derricotte - That time my grandmother dragged me through the perfume aisles at Saks, she held me up by my arm, hissing, “Stand up,” through clenched teeth, her eyes bright as a dog’s cornered in the light. She said it over and over, as if... Read more →