Extended Family

The smell of Chinese food and someone else’s cigarettes and all the stiff yellow photos, stacked like mountains on their often empty dining room table, tell stories I’ll never know But the non-existence of those memories permeate my stream of thought and beg the question, “Why? Why don’t you know them?” I've never had an answer and I never will, as they all drop off like flies drawn to glow of the drink and smokes and my lips are too stubborn and stone to investigate.