Smoke That Cigarette!

 

Gasping for breath, you light your cigarette
Coughing,choking.as you live, dying
The day it began,you never forget
You promise to quit,you know you're lying
This habit has you under it's control
Tho~ it's bad,you keep right on denying
A vice so strong, takes over mind and soul
Since teenage days when you took your first puff
with peers, popularity was the goal
Looking cool when smoke in hand was tough
'Twas so De-rigueur',to light up was cool.
with a cigarette holder, long enough

 

Gasping for breath,you light your cigarette
The day it began you'll never forget.

 

But times changed, smoking no longer cool
Manufacture's brain storm gave safe smoking
No such thing,still over eyes they pulled wool
Saying it's light and right, are they joking?
And on each pack in small print ~a warning
None would heed nor read,and kept on choking
Prices increased at a rate so alarming
Addiction was higher,so pay out the nose
Nicotine's nice! How could it be harming?
So up in smoke the public arose
We just couldn't be without cigarettes
Two, three , four,$$ or how high a pack Who knows?

 

 

Addiction was higher so pay out the nose
So up in smoke the public arose.

 

 We all paid and puffed, on that you can bet
'Til the day comes when you can't catch your breath
Then you may have a few smoky regrets
An oxygen tank, breathes for you at best
You still crave that white nail in your coffin
Even tho~ you know it will cause you death
Each day gets harder, you're ready to cave in
As you can no longer breathe in or out
Grasping how you came to gasping's sad end.
Thinking in flashbacks, how it all came about
knowing too little, too late, about life
Realizing you should have done without
.

You smoked life away to days filled with strife
And with your life you must now pay the price

 

Reviews

[AK]

I smoked two packs a day for years and hated every out-of-control minute of it. I hated the fact that I was unable to stop. But I did stop, cold turkey. And it was the best thing (well, second -best thing) I've ever done.
I cannot believe in 2008 that anyone still smokes cigarettes. I genuinely care for a few people I know who smoke and it just tears me up knowing what it's doing to them.
And I can't believe how much the rest of the population pays to sustain all those folks who cannot afford the health care services they require as a result of their habit. They can't pay their hospital bill, we can't just let them die... it's one of the chief reasons health care costs so much today!

Sorry, I guess you pushed my button with this one. Nicely done!

[Wild Spirit]

Many people in my family smoke so I have seen the effects of it. You did a good no with the message of the poem. Nice work

[Fran Marie]

Thanks for reading, for sure a bad habit with terrible effects

[Devons]

This is a brilliantly written and damning testimony against the controversial -though popular- subject it addresses.
As a poem it is remarkably strong, and skilfully written. The choice of words is potent and the flow and rhythm of a high standard..

...But -and this is why the subject is popular and controversial- it is a common philosophy pervading much of society today, almost to the point of obscenity. Non-smokers, anti-smokers, inveterate smokers, and casual smokers - all are pitted against one another, and none of them with a genuinely unbiased point of view.. Non-smokers are led by scientific opinion, anti-smokers preach, inveterate smokers are insular, and casual smokers sit on the fence... All of them are hypocrites throwing stones from within glass houses.. For there are too many comparisons one could answer the criticisms with on both sides.. Material waste pollution (how many people have cars?), fossil fuel use (everybody), nuclear weapons and power (all major nations), alcoholism (many of whom non-smokers; liver-disease/violence/domestic abuse), sunbathing (skin cancer), poor diet (obesity/cholesterol/high blood pressure), physical fitness/vanity (heart attacks/anorexia/envy/vivisection), greed (abuse/terrorism/war).... and on and on and on...
...But then, I would say that, wouldn't I...? (being a smoker)
And I hereby rest my case...

[☮]

So so so so true.

[Ladysue]

Wow Fran, you didn't mince words here. This was so honest and so true! Your words were strong as they paint the awful picture in this addiction. I have quit now about 9 years. I will never go back. I did quit once for 4 years, but went back. Could you image? It truly is an addiction, but 9 years now and I know for a fact I will never touch it again. A great piece written with the plain truth. A topic worth writing about!

[DIANA WILBANKS]

I do agree ,I thought I gotta fit in ,even tho I hated the deed itself ...choking all the way to the market
to buy more,lol' I like this ,it is very informing and maybe who knows ,someone might benefit(and stop) from this poem,Great job and God Bless,my friend!

[Fabian G. Franklin]

I never saw the point in smoking cigarettes, although I did once love a puff or two of marijuana on occasion but that never became a habit, just an experiment to see if all the hype was true, it made me feel happy (but not silly) and calm and seemed to intensify the pleasure center of the brain, making food taste better and music sound better. It made me very hungry. lol Great write here. On a post script note, I have never understood why marijuana is illegal and alcohol is, marijuana is by far the lesser of the two evils, even less harmful than tobacco as far as my own personal experience since it is non physically addictive...my father died from lung cancer...smoked a pack a day for forty years.

[Bear]

so honest, so true... been puffing away for many a year; quit a time or two or over a year but, lit up again the drug addiction stonger than my will. Good write, I think I'll print it out and post it on my front door so I see it each time I go outside; perhaps it will convince me that NOW is the time!!

Sallie Bear