black coat black hair
10:36 p.m. on 2010-03-22
the lonely cliff. a mink runs among the rocks, swims, wipes itself a semblance of dry on a log. long ships kick up wind, abusing the harbour water, kicking waves higher against the shore. foghorns cut through the air like a bitten lip and echo back to sea. somewhere along the path a girl is singing; on the hill above there is drunken laughter despite the fact that it's only four o'clock. a man with dirty black hair sits beside me, lights a joint. "that you singing before?" that was me singing, i'm somewhere on a cliff. "maybe." "it was nice." "thanks." he offers me the joint, i take a hit. another hit. pass it back to him. breathing deeply, i suck back the smoke, release a long exhale. a breath of relief. the taste of burning foliage in my mouth. the man with the joint smells like he has not showered in several days, like he sleeps in a dumpster. let's be honest, he probably does. he doesn't pass the joint back again, i'm a stranger after all. people here are friendly but there's only so much weed. i pull my sketchbook and a pencil out of my bag, start drawing his profile, the way he appears to be brooding on the receding shoreline and how the sun seems to be melting through the heavy charcoal clouds. he blows loose smoke rings into the air, i sketch those too. his face wrinkles like a dying leaf, shriveled in on itself and transparent in places. i ask him how old he is. he says thirty-two, i had guessed something closer to sixty. i don't ask his story, his face tells it for me. his hands look his age, though. they are smooth, strong hands. there is dirt under his fingernails but if it weren't for that, i would think they were the hands of a wealthy young man. the humidity here cradles those hands; it wasn't able to save the rest of him. he starts to go. i rip the sketch out and hand it to him but he pushes it away, says he has no where to put it, i might as well keep it. i say, "thanks for the toke." he waves and leaves, black coat catching the wind behind him. i wish he'd left me a joint.
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