Cigarette butts
I walk city streets daily and see those butts everywhere: the number one item collected on coastal cleanup days that are so toxic to wildlife and the land and water. Someday (hopefully soon) tobacco users will have no filters or reusable filters or pipes only.
Here's a poem I wrote back in the 90s that helped me to finally get off cigarettes, after almost a decade of smoking. It's been on my mind lately...
Cigarette Still Life
in six parts
I.
You of French spelling in packets of twenty:
I am lured by your co - lo - ni - al charm
like in the Hollywood movies of the U.S. of A. -
I am seduced by Bogart and Bergman in Morocco,
and Hepburn on the Amazon. I am hooked
on your gold band and leopard-like filter.
I dig your rising smoke in its swaying style.
You are oh so sexy. I aspire to your power!
See me on my hands and knees praying
for your most highest, precious grace...
II.
You got me Marlboro man, pioneer, rugged
individualist. Won't you come on down
from that billboard and take me away,
far away, from these harsh city streets
and sirens...
III.
Nah, I want to be the tough and fearless martyr.
Joan of Arc must have smoked. There she is
in the center of the city on her galloping horse,
a hand-rolled cigarette dangling from her lips.
IV.
Cigarette Still Life look at what you've done:
I wanna be working class and buy cartons on sale
and chain smoke inside with the windows closed,
the air conditioner on and watching my daily soap.
Fuck you, you're the best with booze and dope.
Damn you're cool in pool halls and roof tops.
V.
Oh, this suffering poet needs you my friend,
my comfort late into the night and early or
just about any time. Life would never be the same
if you leave my side. Only a few bucks a day and
I am filled with pleasure and contentment.
VI.
Cigarette Still Life: you lied to me in dying, old,
addictive ways. You’re conniving, capitalist greed
who told me to smoke for fun and adventure
yet you are the same boardroom topic
for targeting teenage girls. The same tobacco
of The Slave Trade. The same arrogant asshole
who smothers Indians and Mexicans. You are
petroleum by-products, the freon and fiberglass.
You're that creep on TV with the perverse smile!
You are the murderer of millions. You are death
hidden behind a cloak labeled "freedom."
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