Memory
Smoke coils from the cigarette
clasped between scrawny fingers,
ash floats down, hits the tray.
A film forms over discarded butts,
clings to the crimson lipstick smears
coating the ends.
She drops the stub beside the others.
Where she sits, the ceiling yellowed.
Nails stained by years of addiction,
what harm can be done now?
Relief spirals away with smoke,
she clutches her abdomen tight
against the pain of mutated cells.
Her sight dims, her brain contaminated.
Extracts another from the packet,
she lights it; takes a drag.
“Another one Nanna?”
“What are you talking about?
I haven’t had one for ages!”
See all the other poems in the book at Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hearts-Minds-ebook/dp/B00AFJOZ0M/ref=sr_1_9?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1354278827&sr=1-9
and Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Hearts-Minds-ebook/dp/B00AFJOZ0M/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1354278920&sr=1-1&keywords=hearts+%26+minds
