Coffee & Cigarettes

I sit sipping on my coffee
Smoking this native-rolled smoke.
These things are much the same.

They stain my teeth
They're low in cost
These things are much the same.

Neither required for my survival,
Quite the opposite, indeed.
These things are much the same.

I did not pay for either -
Both, I'd rather live without
These things are much the same.

They stimulate serotonin
A short-lived tranquility
These things are much the same.

Without them, I'm a tyrant -
Mood swaying, like trees in the wind.
These things are much the same.

I'd take them over nourishment;
Food comes only third.
These things are much the same.

I smoke and drink myself to debt;
My favorite companies thrive in wealth.
These things are much the same.

Best enjoyed together -
My PB & J
These things are much the same.

A habit, sprouted far too young,
Addicted until the end.
These things are much the same.

Author's Note

My thoughts when out for a cigarette in the freezing cold. Figured I'd record them and put them up here.

Reviews

[Frieda P]

Entertaining read whilst I sip my coffee, 'these things are much the same'....
Like the repetition of that line, it suits this piece well. Nice write.

[Jack Reaper]

be it if this is actually about coffee and cigarettes (i see one reviewer mentioned weed and beer) then i can fully relate. i type that as i light a cig and sip my coffee, ha! reguardless, youve captured the addiction quite well. great flow and relationable (to whatever 2 addictions one may have). nicely done.

[Sacha Davison]

I feel as though Dr. Wood's referral to "weed" is that of tobacco. I could be wrong, but judging by the clearly defined age barrier between us that I have picked up from reading his work I'd say it's a fairly safe guess. I thank you, again, for reviewing my work! It's always a pleasure to read your reviews.

[Dr. Wood ?]

this is SOME poem my friend....I was lucky enough to kick the weed....still enjoy the odd beer or two though...You have nailed just about everything here it reads as if it just flowed out

[MachinaWriter]

Haha...yeah, I'm with you here. I like the repetition of the line "These things are much the same". I loved the title of this, because I actually wrote a series of short stories called Coffee, Cigarettes & Contemplations. It was based off a bunch of conversations me and my friends used to have when we'd go out to IHOP back in San Antonio. It was one of the few places where you could still smoke indoors. So we'd smoke cigarettes all night long, drinking the free refills on coffee, and talking about everything and nothing. Life, philosophy, sex, drugs, stupid movies and why we thought they were stupid, what we wanted in life, what we hated in life, what we dreamed about, and what we wished we could understand, but probably never would. The stories all had my friends in them, but with different names. It was an interesting cast, nonetheless. My coke-dealing genius IQ jewish friend "Roy"; "Zee" who couldn't grasp what her own desires were so was a roller coaster of wants and self-defeats, but had a natural sexual allure and mysterious nature to her that held anyone captivated just by a few words; "Dan" who dropped out of Yale so he could be with a girl, who ended up dumping him (after that he became a bit of a womanizer, never holding any emotional attachment to anyone); and me...well, that's a different story lol Plus the waitresses, the cook "Dylan" who migrated from China and was the biggest stoner I've ever met. He'd sometimes forget he wasn't speaking English, when he was really stoned. Sorry, rambled lol This poem's title brought back a lot of fond memories. It was well written, as well. So congratz and thanks for sharing, man ^^

[Sacha Davison]

Wow, if you have that series posted please send me a read request, I'd love to have a look! Such a wonderful idea for a collection of writings. I'm glad the title brought back so much. No need to apologize for rambling, it happens to the best of us. Thank you for your appreciation and your review, always a pleasure!

PS If you haven't already heard the audio version my brother made of your song, you're in for a treat. It's one of his better works , in my opinion.

[MachinaWriter]

Nah, I heard the song, it's pretty sick. It went hard, I've shown it to a bunch of my buddies already. And no, I don't have it posted. It's in one of my notebooks, and I really have no idea where it is. I wrote it years ago.

[Sacha Davison]

Ah, sounds like a thrilling read nonetheless! Should you ever stumble upon the notebook that it calls home be sure to post a story or two! I love stories with concepts like that.

[MachinaWriter]

Definitely, man. I'm gonna see if I can dig it up. Unfortunately, that's like searching for a slightly smaller needle in a pile of needles. I've got like...somewhere between 120 to 160 notebooks. I tie them together in stacks usually, with shoelaces, and toss them into corners or dark places lol I stopped using them as much after I started saving everything on Word. I'll see if I can find it, though, one of these days.

[Sacha Davison]

Wow, I'm humbled. If I took all of my compositions (including those for school purposes) and put them into notebooks I'd probably have a maximum of 50 notebooks. Now I realize where all this talent comes from :P I look forward to the possibility of reading those stories, though! You've definitely sparked my interest, aha.

[MachinaWriter]

That was before I started writing poetry. Most of it was short stories, background information, character sheets for novels, and stuff like that. I also used to do what I called "character interviews", where I would do hypothetical interviews with each character in my stories. It was written in an interview format:
Me: So, if you found yourself in a situation where you could potentially lose a friend by being honest, what would you do? Tell the truth, or lie to protect their feelings?
Adam (hypothetical character name lol): That's a good question. Hmm...s**t, that's tough, brah. I'd have to say that I would...

Stuff like that. I kept it natural, writing their parts in the way I thought they would speak. So it was practice in that characters form of dialogue, and it also got me to better understand the character on the inside. I did this with every character. I also wrote profiles for every character. Each character had a notebook dedicated to them on just interview material. Let's put it this way...I've done this for well over fifty characters. Plus I would flesh out the history of worlds I made for my stories, concepts for technology for science fiction stories, theories on political systems, histories behind countries and worlds, descriptions on every town, their main focus, along with drawings for each, maps, and sketches of every major character, as well as minor ones and even some of the cities. I've done all of this s**t...but I've still never finished one of my damn novels lol Everytime I get to writing the novel, something horrible has happened that's prevented me from doing it. Broken computer once. Virus another time. Lost someone close to me, lost my apartment, car wrecks, missing notebooks, fires. Everytime I get a decent way into one of the actual novels, something either stops it completely or puts it on hiatus for such a long time that it's hard to get back into the story when it's over lol So I have well over a hundred notebooks on background information, but very little stuff left of the actual novels they were written for. Plenty of short stories, though. I guess that's good lol

[Sacha Davison]

Wow that's actually such a clever way to develop characters. And holy s**t dude, talk about dedication to your work aha. The most I've ever done to organize/plot any piece of writing is a simple outline and a list of character names and traits - and believe me it's rare that I'll even do that. It's unfortunate to hear of all of the hindrances in your work, it would drive me absolutely crazy. Remind me, should I ever reach my goal of becoming a published author, to give thanks to you in the future for all the tips and ideas you've given me. You're a great inspiration and mentor to me as a writer!

[MachinaWriter]

lol No problem, man. I think communities of writers are great things. You can feed each other with ideas and inspiration, encouragement and criticism. It's necessary to improve and stay focused. And different techniques work for different people. I knew this guy that used to lay down a giant piece of white board material on his floor and draw out clusters for different ideas and concepts. He'd then sit in his chair, in the middle of this giant web of ideas and start going through them piece by piece, while he'd juggle these three hackey sacks. Here and there he'd let them fall, when he couldn't think of what to do next and whatever cluster it landed in, he'd run with that idea and draw more little webs out from the idea. It's a pretty unique way of doing it, that I've never heard of before. Could never see me doing that, but for him it worked. It's good to learn as many different techniques and methods as possible. That way you can naturally adapt into what is most comfortable for you. I used to write the same scene over and over again, but from the perspective of a different character each time, starting with the minor characters and eventually ending with the major one. That way by the time I got to him, I knew exactly what each of the other characters would do, what the scene looked like, and I could make them believable and real, rather than just cardboard cut-outs meant to fill spaces around my protagonist.

[Sacha Davison]

That's so original what your friend did. That's intense.
And your methods of character development are very intriguing. I will certainly be experimenting with these methods as I try to develop my own.

[}Echo{]

Interesting.. This is different.. I like it. Great write. :)

[Sacha Davison]

Thanks for reviewing! Sorry for the delay on your read requests by the way. I'll get to them ASAP, I just have sooooo many to do and I've been feeling quite scatterbrained lately.

[}Echo{]

No problem. :D Ah, it's cool. :)

[John Alexander McFadyen]

Hey Sacha give up smoking and voila no frozen butt! A good little piece on the habits we all take for granted.

[Sacha Davison]

If only it were that simple, my friend! Thank you for the review!