Addicted

Written for a poem contest on addiction, abuse of some substance.

Addicted, to a poison, legal,

if you're over eighteen,

you can purchase cigarettes

and look grand and regal!

 

That's what they said, way back when,

watching tv programs, day or night,

there was the Marlboro Man,

at the beginning, middle or end.

 

Just fifteen, I thought I knew it all,

went to the service station,

put twenty-six cents in the machine

and mistakenly, bought unfiltered Pall Mall!

 

Hiding in the canyon, with my friend,

coughing, hacking, gasping,

spitting tobacco off of our lips,

we smoked a cigarette to the end!

 

Amazing how commercials can get us to buy,

heralding the very best or latest,

you just HAVE to HAVE,

but, sometimes...they lie.

 

We'll make you an addict,

despite emphesema and cancer,

with that craving for nicotine,

you'll have to have our little white stick!

 

We know you'll get the itch-

say it smells awful, tastes bad, too

and you'll annnounce,

I'm going to quit!

 

No concentration, just can't think,

craving, craving,

ranting, raving,

turned into the Super B***h!

  

Oh, it tastes soooo good,

I'm so sorry, world,

I'm so addicted,

I'd really quit, if I could.

 

You cannot smoke in bars

or on an airplane

or at the beach

or in someone else's car.

 

You feel like you are slime,

so many others have quit,

but, give me a place to light up

and I'll do it every time.

 

Addict, a word that brings tears,

oh, that nicotine poison,

how I love it and hate it,

for forty-two flaming years!

Reviews

[Craig2591]

I was addicted to those goddamn things for fifteen years! I quit when my daughter was born. It was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life! I succeeded by vowing that I wasn't going to give those lying, bloodsucking tobacco companies another penny.

[s y e]

Wow, being addicted to drugs or alcohol can eventually rule your life. We had a 6 weeks session in school about this topic and two guys who were ex addicts came in a spoke to us. They had managed to turn there life around, they went back to university and are studying to be counsellors, to help people who are addicts. They said it ruined there life and one of the guys now have to watch his son take the same route he did. It's a tough read but a great write.

[Barbara Walker]

It's tough and sad that something has such a powerful hold on me. Thanks!

[s y e]

You're welcome

[Frieda P]

I've lived this, quit a whole bunch of times, ten years once, then my sister committed suicide it was the first crutch I fell back on...yep, they say it's harder to kick nicotine than Heroin, I believe it! Good read Barbara.

[Barbara Walker]

I believe it, too! Thanks!

[Coyote Poetry]

I don't believe the government had the right to stop smoking in public places. Smoking is a personal decision. My mother who is 76 year old and a heavy smoking. Won't leave her house now. Can't smoke. Won't go anywhere. I like your story. In New York city they have no meat days. I would sit in New York city with a cigar and a raw piece of meat on no meat Tuesdays. Just to show we are still free in the USA. Thank you for the excellent poem. Made me think.
Coyote

[Blackwood]

Intresting... i myself don't have an addictive nature but have lived with and been raised by addicts of all kind. I think that maybe your poem touches mant uniques and intresting points for people and in a there addictions in a very common frame sort of way; however through the omnipresent self capable of putting more thought into something as animalistic aas addiction can be.

[Doctor JKC]

Cool poem!

I'm a binger with beer and then not a one
for days and I roll my own organic brand
to placate my guilt.
And then lovingly with that good cup of coffee
from a real coffee shop that roasts their own
and it is dark and loves me, too!