Smoking Brown Bag Cigarettes

Smoking Brown bag Cigarettes

untrained fire-eaters
is what we were


smoking
brown cedar cigarettes
rolled up in
brown paperbags borrowed
from mr yancy's
grocery store


thrilled
we choked and
coughed as hot
flames roasted our throats
and tongues


tears stuck their
fingers in our
wide stretched eyes

we didn't care

we were
sophisticated
 playing
grown with our
skinny legs crossed
like big daddy
when he's smoking
store bought cigarettes


"what you children
doing under
this house of mine?"
grandmama asked

"you children too
quiet under there to
be doing good."


"she heard us coughing,"
peter said, choking on smoke

"we not being bad, miss grandmama,"
annie lee, my best friend said.
"we playing a game."


"playing a game with
our hand rolled cigarettes,"
leelee said real low,
a gleam in his
devilish eyes


copyrighted by dorothy charles banks