57: Defalcated

Show dogs, Afghan hounds, with cigarettes placed in the corner of their mouths. The front runner in the previous rounds, Martin, has defalcated the price money before the final on behalf of its owner, but the others are unaware and when their masters remove the cigarettes from their perfectly bred chops they blow the most beautiful smoke rings. It was an incredibly small gust of wind that I held out in my hands. My auntie reeled back mistaking it for a fart. “It’s from the woods, I found it rustling in the leaves, that’s why I think it’s a little brown.” She leaned back in and snuffled it from my sweaty palm like a piglet. It was there in those ‘don’t leave me eyes’, dreams of buoyancy, floating, follow what sinks from above. Deflated hearts sink to the bottom, following shadows, reaching in vain at what floats above.