-the "Nicotine Tree"
 San Marcos Requiem-

1.
He said:  "Let’s meet at the Nicotine Tree

And smoke a cigarette together".

At the tree she told him: "Tap the soft-
Pack hard to the heel of your palm.

Tamp the loose tobacco down".

They smoked at the trunk of the ancient tree,
The tree of folklore and countless suspensions,

By the street between two large buildings between the opening bells.

There, the studious and incorrigible,

Those slated for the great Universities

Along with those to be deposited to the Factories

And Filling Stations, spilled into the street
Like wrapped confections

Tumbling from opposing containers, where

The last of the spent-blue smoke is hung at her mouth.

He said: "Let’s go.

It's time to snuff our smokes
And enter the darkness inside their world".

2.
At the fabled tree, rooted near the street now drained of life
Between two buildings between the closing bells

She told him: "No.

Let’s be bold my love, and smoke another one".