There’s a bad smell in that town
and I was there
and I could tell that
everyone else was used to it
and maybe even comfortable with it
or at least pretended to be
but it smothered me
like a town of rotten breath people
can and will
Fear is not a word I like to use
or anything I like to feel
because it contradicts my
professed absolute faith
but there was fear in that town
and it infested me
Fear of poverty
loneliness
slow death
and words and poems
stifled by halitosis
That town is lifetimes ago for me
but every once in a while
in the midst of my new
aromatically pleasant life
I still get a bad taste in my mouth