The Pipe by Brian Gore

    Where is my pipe?
I shall not have a night without it. Who then has failed me?

A foot drags slowly behind the chair
of the Confident, yet, no pipe arrives.
     It was his last, last anyone saw it,
  so while his foot slowly slides behind the chair
his head falls cumbersomely upon the table.

A pipe is placed on the kitchen counter, but
    the master is asleep. Brian takes the pipe out for a smoke.
He peers down through the fog toward the alligator swamp
    thinking of nothing.
    He is warm, the smoke billows upward, and his mind seeps
into the slurpy bog beneath him.
Brian finishes his contemplation, damps out the pipe, and then walks it to
    his master’s table who never knew it was not in his mouth.

BrianSGore is a writer of short stories, poems, and songs. He has published several collections of original works including Barstool Ballads, Eleven Stories for Short … Attentions, and Tangled World, as well as coordinating a collaborative project entitled A Collection of Poems by Various Poets Regarding the Line '10,000 Miles of Farewell’. His newest book, Drawn Thread, is now available, along with his new album Going, Never Stopping, at briangoing.bandcamp.com.