Habits To Leave Behind Poem by Susan Lacovara

Above the dripping darkness
Of my black hair
The same hair your hands
Got lost in
Puffed out circles of Marlboro smoke
Cloudy, like the thoughts
Of yesterday's love making

And in a room
Stale now, with leftover smoke
And fragmented conversation
That smell like stagnated water
From a vase with last week's flowers
I return to making vows
Of breaking old tired habits
That no longer have a place
In this tiny capsule of a home life
I, not long ago decorated
With pictures of a purposeful union