Ode to a Cigarette

From virgin to Virginia,

Smoke curls through clean night air,

Beautiful and deadly,

Every molecule heading for heaven or hell,

Taking a little of my life with it

On its deadly and beautiful journey

To... up there.

 

Perhaps that poisoning smoke knows what I don’t?

Do I seek knowledge in the killing embers?

 

From virgin to Virginia,

The click and the flame in the dark,

The comforting presage of doom -

It can only be my doom.

 

Beautiful and deadly smoke in the night air,

Tar, black as night,

Dark as whispered evil,

In an inexorable slide down,

Sullying flesh and polluting faltering breath,

Killing the God-given gift of life.

 

Smoke bites eyes, tears fall -

Tears for the ashes of my shortened life.

Soon, my life will be ashes of burnt tobacco.

 

From virgin to Virginia,

The noxious stuff sullies virginal flesh,

Turning it black as rotting corpses in Virginia.

 

From virgin to Virginia,

That plentiful poisoning plant has been my chaperone.

Sometimes, love comes in packets of twenty,

And those paper cylinders will be my lovers,

Until death does us part.

 

Oh, the bittersweet comfort of nicotine,

Addiction is company even when I am alone.

 

One day, my corpse too will lie,

In those killing fields in Virginia.

Reviews

[Moonflower]

A daunting piece, filled with my own fears and vices. My relation to this is smothering, like I'm screaming inside but will never be released from this prison of alluring nicotine and painful, hacking breath. This was well written, excellent imagery and the repeated lines seemed to just add more drive to the haunting echo of death.

[John Jackson (El Juero)]

Now this is GOOD! Nicotine was the first drug I quit...and it damn near killed me then. this is a beautifully written, true story. Pure as the air before the Bic ciicks.

[Moflo]

"From virgin to Virginia" -such a key line for this work and I absolutely love how you tied it together! I personally hate cigarettes but I am a user of tobacco so I understand the love/hate relationship. This was a fantastic write, I really liked it a lot.