One thirty Wednesday

Hum of the fluorescent in the garage roof

Crackle of paper at inhalation

Russell’s footsteps on the drive

Surreptitious placing of his bottle

The dead are sleeping

Crush the stub

NB: a waste of newsprint

Turn the key in the backdoor

Decades leave their audible trace

And there's time for a final measure

Soon all of this must pass unremembered