black coffee and cigarettes
Nokyoung Xayasane

You like
your coffee
black.
Now I do
too.
You sleep
naked.
Now I do
too.
I didn’t know
you used to
smoke
cigarettes.
The day
you quit
was the day
before our
first date.
I didn’t know
until months later
that you removed
all your piercings
except for
that one.
Sometimes
I would forget
you don’t like
to read books
and you hated
school.
Love wipes
our memory.
There is only
white light
and this bright
feeling.
You became
someone I wanted.
I was always
who I was
except for that
black coffee thing
and the sleeping
naked thing.
And all those
punk shows
with you
on stage
with your guitar
and me
standing in
the audience
like a sleepy groupie.
Oh, and the drinking
of beers.
I never used to
touch the stuff.
That’s all you.
Now I wonder
if you’re smoking again.
Have you put
those piercings
back in?
Those are things
I wonder and
those are things
I would prefer
not to know
anymore.