I lit two matches

I stoked a smoke

I fed a ceramic cat the burnt matches

I inhaled

I exhaled

I go all to haelle 
              the smoke works like a skeleton key through my lungs through my bloodstream into the motherlode fingering the silver keyholes in all the celldoors wiggling and tickling until one in particular wails in the right paroxysmic sigh(for that moment)

then plunges its thorny key

jiggles it for good measure

and turns it

            the cell unlocks

it takes a languid moment(for each)

before anxiously yanking the door wide open to reveal its contents

that squirm like an oyster just before its shucked

                                         AWFUCK  sighs the oyster
as it witnesses the tip of the blade penetrating its shhcell

all that effort to accrete a pearl

the irritations

now to lose it to something of a vagrant that robs rather than labours  hadnt bent a knee elbow or backAWFUCK!


but this pearl is swilling vodka laughing darkly  is drunk and wanton

a decrepit old conjuror

capable of playing whatever magic he wished

played pattycake

served his own purposes

but I know I could smell him

hes sousedhes loaded to the gills

but the conjuror knew Id describe him as soused to the gills and incanted in Latin from original Greek and grew gills bright red gills limned and hued in chartreuse that yawned   ancollapsed     anyawned
ancollapsed like feathery insatiable pussies

if the conjuror wanted he could make them speak

Say a few words to the people
                         as a ventriloquist might taunt the dummy seated on his lap
but these dummies were dumbed up 
he made them mute

he acted as if he were upset

knowing full well what he had done

Dont be shy the conjuror said Just a few words For their edification

and slyly looked out to see if I were looking in

if I were willing to assume his  their

if I were an audience

if I wished to be edified

outside the conjurors shhcell the smoke hadnt dissipated 

quietly it fingered a jailer keyring

it wasnt fool enough to leave a key in the lock

and while Im not a conjuror I impelled the smoke to move along  Parse I asked Please  Another shhcell

festooned in wiggling gills the conjuror was either partially blinded by their trembling tips or didnt see or drunkenly disregarded the sliver of smoke hanging outside his door

Dont be shy the conjuror said to me

hesitantly
I looked in
and as my eyes met the snarl starting up on his wetted lips the shhcelldoor hushed shut  was bolted and locked

over a vapourous shoulder smoke nodded at me  implying I owned it one

I nodded  I accepted my obligation

as I finished my smoke watching the blue and silver breeze snatch my exhales and drag them off to wherever breezes or winds go I pondered how my obligation would eventually play out

and crushing the butt

smothering the ash

inside my head I could hear the conjuror mull and threaten  When I get out

I didnt concern myself

I couldnt imagine smoke would let me off the hook that it would despoil any attempt the conjuror might make to escape

if he remembered when his binge was finished or his vodka deplete

perhaps I can go all to haelle for what it cared

Id find out

in the meantime I lit two matches I stoked a smoke

1915,  Thursday,  21  7. 16
1454,  Friday,  22  7. 16

Otis Redding  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyPKRcBTsFQ