By Sadhana Bhat
You burn and leave ashes
That wait to be shaken off-
Only to burn again and give more ashes,
That should fall to re-function.
But what you offer with it is euphoria,
At every cycle of inhale and exhale-
Some momentary erking of nerve endings,
Like the flickers of those loosely held, blazing ashes.
At your ends,
All you did
Is get finished,
And leave behind
Poison-
And poison only.