The Marlboro Man and Me

Twenty years have passed since that last cigarette. Tonight, out of the clear blue, I craved a king-size ***-- The one thing out of everything I know I’d soon regret. Suddenly, my forehead broke out in tiny beads of sweat. I sat quietly, staring, thinking about the suffocating drag; Twenty years have passed since that last cigarette. Years swiftly pass and the mind still cannot forget, It should be the first to send up the signal, the red flag, The one thing out of everything I know I’d soon regret. I was a teenager when the Marlboro man and I first met In a hole-in-the-wall café where we teens danced the rag, Twenty years have passed since that last cigarette. At fifty I gave up smoking when my heart became upset Over twenty-five years I have not had one, I must not brag, The one thing out of everything I know I’d soon regret. I know I would pass up that cigarette, even if I lost a bet, Nothing would be worth it; the thought of it makes me gag, Twenty years have passed since that last cigarette, The one thing out of everything I know I’d soon regret. Written April 8, 2021