Tristan Robert Lange
Ashtray
For accessibility, the poem appears below in standard reading order:
You think you know a life by the habits built in it, as if a life—let alone a soul—can be read like a laundry list of clean and dirty.
Those smokers, clearly trashy, no?
Alcoholics? Either party animals or self-loathing losers.
A person who exercises? Clearly disciplined.
Or are they?
We are all butts within a messy, funked up ashtray.
ANXIETY
FEAR FOMENTED
TOO MUCH
UNENDING GRIEF
DEPRESSION
FAILED MARRIAGE
TAUGHT TO HATE
JUDGED
SUCCESS OR DIE
PRETTY
BODY IMAGE ISSUES
ABUSED
ABANDONED
NO ONE CARES
© 2026 Tristan Robert Lange. All rights reserved.
First published on tristanrobertlange.com, March 6, 2026.
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