Quit
Devon Neal
Tonight when I get off work,
I’ll take the long way home—
trading the neon confetti of storefronts
for single-lane backroads.
The corner grocery store
just outside our neighborhood
will have exactly what we need: salty continents
of tortilla chips we’ll populate
with the flora and fauna of chopped
tomatoes, peppers, and cheese.
Our living room will be a lamplit
star bed, the TV will jitter.
Tonight when I get off work,
we’ll sit in silence with our lime sodas,
the nacho cheese like gum in hair,
our smoke breaks stunted with—remember,
remember? Tonight when I get off work,
we’ll remember, remember. Sit
in silence, soggy chips, sodas in tall glasses,
“we need to quit this, too.”
About the writer
Photo by Devon Neal
Devon Neal (he/him) is a Bardstown, KY resident who received a B.A. in Creative Writing from Eastern Kentucky University and an MBA from The University of the Cumberlands. He currently works as a Human Resources Manager in Louisville, KY. His work has been featured in Moss Puppy Magazine, coalitionworks, Sage Cigarettes Magazine, Rough Cut Press, and others.