my smoke alarm is going off

i have very

sensitive smoke alarms

these days.

not the ones

in the hall,

or going down the basement

stairs,

or the one in

the kitchen, no, not

those.

mine are in my head.

i smell smoke

long before the fire

begins.

i've been in enough chaotic

relationships

to have learned

my lesson,

accumulated enough scars,

to know when

to run for cover

before the next fire

is set again.