Lodestar Quarterly

Lodestar Quarterly
Figure reaching for a star Issue 12 • Winter 2004 • Poetry

Smoking Too Much

Mako Matsuda

You have extinguished so
many cigarettes on this wall
paint is chipping
I could say you are
smoking too much

But you are wanting
a good old fashion
mind-fuck, the kind
Faces of Death
provided you at age 12
How ill you felt
for days after and
could not swallow

Here now at this wall
you say;

I was born while god
was sleeping
and I will die
before god awakes
no love no judgment
no luck

You are conducting an execution
by firing squad
A bandana over your eyes
and every cigarette I see
you smoke looks like your last

Mako Matsuda is finishing a creative writing undergraduate degree at San Francisco State and works at Half Price Books in Concord, California. His claim to fame is that he kissed Morrissey's hand during a concert.

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