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- Poets smoke
poets smoke
they issue cool in a flick of dashed lines
collar bolted shut by the button
smoke from the fingers
shoulders slouched arched
puff
lips parted no words long stare
words in their marbles spinning in place
eyeball plates
that was me
trying
poets smoke
now
i am so really screwed
i am not smoking
damnit
here i am all set free -- buildingless
spires cooled and on the walls around me
the eyes of the dagger
the pen loaded
like a bullfighter's halo crimson and ghost coming church
burned red
damnit
i got set free
every time i see the inhale i see the cancer ripping apart the
lungs
i see war drums and toxic marsh lands and zombies
ripping through all that helpless pink flessh
them lungs ripped by the smog monster
that stick of "fuck you and go-fuck yourself-myself-my body"
yelling
yelling that through blood raining down on
the emphysema-riddled dawn
the street concrete gray blue neon-blue sky
one white cloud
and in the alley
milk cartons and cigarette butts litter the brick surrounding
each side
like it rained candy paper
in there the ghosts of the wars my grandfather fought are in
there with him
he is dying again
on the oxygen maching
crying
for his life
he was losing
because of the arch-shouldered-poet smoking trick
because of what the twenty years did
did for me
because when it hits your lungs yoiu just kill it some more
each time
plus coffee in the morning and somehow
somehow it's okay
but
what if it killed your wife too because it lingered in the halls
of the house
and who you were built to protect
you kept out the rats
the mice
the serial killers
the poison vats of crack
and
instead
you let in the fog that caused sixty types of cancer immediately
no matter what
and
she dies alone after you die because you hit that arched
golden door
poets smoke harder
what
for?
for a reason to have the suit match the insides of the darkened palace
of bad posture
and reckoning
i think not
i got set free
thank god
i got set free
one more day alive
uncool
breathing in the elmed-car-lined neighborhood air
while
poets smoke
Ryan Adams
From: Hello Sunshine















juniperlillie on Feb 10, 2010, 10:28 am
I quit in early December, took it back up for about a week and wound up with a wonderful respiratory infection. So I've had to quit yet again it's been about a week or so... and it's just as hard as day one. If I weren't snowed in I'd probably be smoking. This does help though. :)
Keree on Feb 8, 2010, 11:26 am
See I smoke (on an evening, cut down to just 2 or 3 a night) and that makes me want to quit, unlike the endless adverts and signs saying 'SMOKING KILLS', I know Pete was joking, but they should really try and put this on the packets lol If anything it'll give me something to read and contemplate whilst I'm committing the crime.
juniperlillie on Jan 20, 2010, 5:25 pm
He's got a whole book (or two) actually, and they're all fairly good ;)
Jonny on Jan 20, 2010, 3:01 pm
WOW! ..... good find :)
juniperlillie on Jan 19, 2010, 5:44 pm
please!
jayfred on Jan 19, 2010, 4:55 pm
Pete - that cracked me up!
juniperlillie on Jan 19, 2010, 8:58 am
He is quite wonderful, innhe? :)
juniperlillie on Jan 19, 2010, 8:58 am
it's a real shame too ;)
Pete Hood on Jan 19, 2010, 7:27 am
They were going to print this on the sides of the packets, but space didn't permit...
Edro on Jan 18, 2010, 7:23 pm
Gum anyone?