FOREWORD: I don't smoke full-time (not even part-time), but it's surprising how smokers and non-smokers react to a 'new' smoker.

SMOKING IS A PASTIME

Smoking lessens your lifespan (she says),
two minutes are now off your life. If you
carry on smoking at this rate, some day
you’ll regret it… (You never know, you
might die.) Nice try, but who would want to live
that long? With all the worrying I’ve done
dying sounds like a relief! This mild arson
works fine for me, better than your fictive
spliff – and if you dare to snatch this fag from
me, I might do something you won’t forgive!

See my whisper in the dark, the maelstrom
in my mouth…? (Stop smoking, you muppet, or
you’ll catch cancer!) Which I very much
doubt… Don’t even ask what I do it for.
I know it’s daft. I’m sick of living such
a good life… I’m sick of feeling so crap!
I’m sick of acting like a Catholic
when I don’t believe in any of that…
I am my own god – Now that’s fuckin’ odd!
Those smoke trails look like a horse speeding off…

But anyway, back to what I just said,
the only god I believe in is me.
And I say ‘I must do this’ (inside my head),
especially when two plus two always makes three.
I indulge in the pain, not the new groove.
I dread the real moment I start hurting myself!
I’m sitting here smoking, while you disapprove,
pretending to know – yet how does that help?

Fellow smokers, not even they understand
my need to self-destruct by my own hand!
It’s hard to stop smoking? At least you get
support when you end to begin as a

final resort.