FIRST SMOKE.

A YOUNG BOY TAKE ONE OF HIS FATHER'S CIGARS AND HAS HIS FIRST SMOKE.

You liberate a cigar
From your father’s
Cigar case; he won’t

Miss one amongst so
Many. You light up
From the borrowed

Lighter from your
Grandfather’s drawer;
He won’t miss what he

Never saw. You inhale
Gingerly like one stepping
On thin ice; you hold the

Smoke until you choke
And splutter. Some cigar,
You mutter, looking at

The thing between fingers.
Your father smokes them
With ease as he does talking

With women, his laughter
Embracing them as his lips
Do the cigar. You inhale

Again, take in the smoke
And hold. The way of men
Maybe, the big guy’s smoke.

You wave away the scent
Of tobacco in case Mother
Sees or smells; you don’t

Think you like these cigars
As you don’t like big girls.