S.F. Wright lives and teaches in New Jersey. His work has appeared in Hobart, X-R-A-Y Literary Magazine, and Elm Leaves Journal, among other places. His short story collection, The English Teacher, is forthcoming from Cerasus Poetry, and his website is sfwrightwriter.com.

POWDER

Sixty-dollar grams;
Small chunks
To be ground
With a nickel.

In a stall,
Residue from
A line
On the notebook
Positioned on my lap;
Classmates’ voices speaking
Bravely,
Sarcastically
Spuriously
A few feet away—
Another galaxy.

The drip.
The blissful
Possibility;
That paradoxical,
Blitzed
Stupefaction:
Hand
Against
Chest,
Detachedly befuddled,
Numbly amazed
That my heart
Did
What it did.

Looking at it now
Like one beholding 
An artifact
Under glass—

Eighteen.