you came to buy just a packet of cigarettes.
donate some change to the establishment of taxes and monetized addiction.
form of control one may say.
simple pleasure the other could reply.
nevertheless that is not the point of these lines.
the point lies behind the cashier on a plastic shelf hidden under covering blinds
(so the non-smokers are not offended by sight of cigarettes)
the path is long and still it’s not.
to be truthful, it’s painfully short.
but you have to go through the isles, products, and shelves of stuff you don’t give a damn fuck about…
but still something within you tells, dictates, to grab some stuff, like candies & etc., just to buy with the smokes.
dunno why, just to buy something more meaningful or valuable in other way, just than a tar smoke packed in paper.
the air-conditionings buzz for some non-obvious reason tells you to simultaneously concentrate on the flickr caused by cheap neon lights.
sub-consciously you examine faces of your fellow nigh timed shoppers.
the frowns of bad day.
the hidden smiles of small victories and pleasures.
numbness of the day.
faces of the life.
you smile on a passing kid.
or maybe not.
depends on you, your day, your modd and all other sorts of things I do not care tonight for.
I smiled.
then you do few other meaningless social rituals, until you find yourself standing the short queue for the cashier (by that time, certain parts of your mind already glorified that person as the god of patience and waiting.).
here is the time.
that is the moment.
not only you say your desired brand of so called death in smoke (or any other secondary preferred brand…you know, just because somewhere they just may do not sell the lucky piece of branding.) but all the other senses will go mad, you are avare of the kid trying to reach for stuff, you smell the strangely familiar smell of the store, and you think about the surreality of the moment….
and then…..the transaction is done.
you’ve changed the goods for the socially aspected bearers of value, given to you as for exchange and excuse to buy parts of time of your life.
you go outside, victoriously light the cigarette, and realize that you’ve just missed the bus you’ve been waiting for, till you got bored and went to buy the smokes to shorten your time.