"Are you listening?"

I nearly tried to answer,
when my thoughts,
were caught by cigar smells,

perfuming
the pleasantries
of that new car scent,
when the car itself
had long since ghosted 
down the asphalt, one last time.

I tried listening again,
but my thoughts
were filled with laughter
and nervous jackhammers,
trembling the earth apart.

How I cope is how I joke,
the punch line always
lets me down easy, you see,
but I’m listening again,
and I just don’t know how to

answer…