smoking orifices

I sat down in a Caribou Coffee and watched coffee goers bring their steaming cups of java over to the fixing station, equipped with sugar, creamer and wooden stir sticks (to protect the environment). They uncapped their caffeinated containers and poured ounces of steaming liquid into the garbage can hole. I hope they double bag. I Imagined melted black plastic and the janitor responsible for emptying the can each day. Steam rose from the garbage each time a customer made room for his creamer.

Outside the USDA Graduate School sat a cigarette butt disposal can that looked like a zucchini. It was bell-shaped with a few small holes at the top, from which an uncanny amount of smoke was emerging. I thought it was designed to put out lit cigarettes? Perhaps several still smoking cherries coalesced with a breeze that came in through the squash holes and voila! a potbelly stove was born. What an ironic fire hazard.