Poems About Tobacco by Top Critiquers

he lit a cigarette
you said you don’t smoke anymore
I don’t,
still the same

Red River Willie

Red River blues
sung by bearded prophet
of western visions
whose cigarette voice
rolls with muddy water
on course for father of waters
while soothsayer of song
plays the harmonica
for crickets chirping
on the banks by the railroad tracks
where old men dream
of days sifted into silt
where the whippoorwill fades
in a dusky hollow

© 2024 by John Hindle

I wrote a love poem
Then I flinched

I dreamt for the right one for a brief moment
Then got alarmed
No it is coffee and cigarettes
That is how you have lived for the rest of your life girl
That is your dream life.

So yes coffee and cigarettes
And ashtray butts of course.

I never smoked again.

However, as the summer of 2012 slipped into autumn, I faced two new problems: a chronic mouth infection caused by the mouth reacting to the absence of cigarettes, and strong, almost uncontrollable, urges to buy a pack of cigarettes, smoke all the cigarettes in a day, and then quit again in the morning.

The dentist dealt with the first problem by prescribing an antibacterial mouthwash. But only I could deal with the second. Thankfully, I didn’t gave in to temptation, no matter how powerful.

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