for good or for worse

Smoke spirals out my mouth
--the perfect shape—
and evanesces beyond the curtain of night
dangling between too late and too early
like I waver between to stay or to go

its viscous crawl defies gravity, and time
becoming a nebulous pendulum
twitching in my clenched fist
as I breathe out more suspended smoke
wondering should I stay or should I go

and I go where the spiral takes me
brimming outwards beyond the margins
only to swoop back in, afraid of
the distance I stretch between origin and end
like the stretching stars, twinkling (or twitching)
in the night’s clenched fist

and they do not stay, and they do not go
and in fact—I won’t know what
became of them for years,
but I don’t have as long
to decide to yield to this supernova
of love staying or love going for good
--or for worse--