Smoke

By Ninoshka Calderon

Your lungs start coughing,
getting darker and darker every time you go outside
and breathe in an enemy.

You don’t know that the enemy is called smoke and smoke
is stabbing your friend that helps you stay alive.
That friend is called your lungs. They are
screaming “stop!” But you never listen,
really you listened to a murderer.

You’re in the hospital and the doctor says, “Your lungs have died.”

You have a hole in your throat that make you sound like a robot that failed to work.

You feel ashamed every time you go to the gas station
and see that box that you thought was your friend
but really is your biggest enemy that almost killed

your lungs and almost killed you.