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
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.