I need a cigarette so bad
What am I asking for?
Nothing much
Just to go back to Heidelberg at 21
when my body didn’t care what I did
and I was yet coasting on future triumphs
while escaping into smoky bars
and wanderwide cobblestone streets

Yes, let me go back there
And not just once
But over and over again
until I get it right
The first few times I’ll drink and smoke in the low-ceilinged basement bar
and then I’ll relax the dissipation and find somebody nice to hike over Die Alte Bruecke and up to the Heidelberger Schloss with
and then I’ll relax the longing and learn something, the kind of magical patterns I’ve always meant to understand, so as to make a mysticism out of science and an art out of scholasticism.
and then I’ll relax the learning and write something, the kind of something that sings without trying
and then I’ll
I dunno
but let’s forget the cigarette —
it’s clearly besides the point