'i wish cigarettes were good for you'

we wrote that down on a plank of wood that would hang above all their heads. the shop was filled with a hundred wishes you can't reach, some funny and some sad and some weren't anything at all.
to me it all seemed intangible.

'they wouldn't make them if they were good for you.
everything destroys something else.'

we flipped the plank over
and wrote that we wished the grass was greener on the other side.

'maybe it is'

i thought about the book i'm reading and, well, you're no rabbit and i'm no wolf. we're both people and she is too.

i don't know
what that means.

'there's nothing after we die.'
there's nothing now.

'i wish people didn't bother me.'
'you can control that, you know. you can.'

i know people i disagree with just because they uttered the words. i know people that have chosen a life opposite of what they want for reasons they don't understand. i know people that are happy with it.
i know two that are trying to drink themselves to death because of it.

'i don't know what to say'
i wish ghosts didn't exist.