Things That Don't Last

They blew it perfectly.

A ring. Actual geometry.

A circle of smoke hanging

in the air like it had weight.

I watched it.

The whole thing took three seconds.

Maybe four.

Then it started to dissolve.

The edges got soft.

The shape got confused.

It stopped being a ring

and started being just smoke again.

Just air with particles.

Just nothing.

I wanted it to last longer.

I wanted to see how long

something so carefully made

could hold itself together.

But it couldn't.

That's not what smoke is.

That's not what anything like that is.

It was beautiful because it was temporary.

It was perfect because it fell apart.

They didn't try to keep it alive.

They just made it and let it go.

Let it dissolve into the air

like it was never shaped at all.

Like the whole point

was just the moment

when it existed.

The moment when something

that shouldn't have been a ring

was a ring.

And then it wasn't.

And it was over.