Ashes to Ashes (Poetry)

After the passion, the postcoital puff;
cooling limbs languid; emotion's pale fluff
spirals in silence and what started off
with an amorous kiss now concludes with a cough.

Deep in its seaworld the embryo kicks,
high on the tide of its prenatal fix
that flows, intravenous, unmeasured, unseen,
and converts the unborn to the god Nicotine.

A christening party surrounds the white crib
and the smoke-cloud they breathe almost smothers the kid
with a blanket of smog - JPS, chic Gauloise
and the rich choking stench of Havana cigars.

At school the initiate is put to the test
and learns to inhale; wears a thermal wool vest
to help the bronchitis his mother's convinced
is genetic. She lights up a King Size and squints

at the family photos; the holiday snaps;
the year-by-year record; the sudden-death gaps
as the near and the dear ones who played life's roulette
gambled and lost to their last cigarette.

At Oxford a pipe lends a certain panache
to the struggle for learning and lack of hard cash:
the son and heir studies and bites on the stem
as he wheezes and swallows a lungful of phlegm.

A career at the top - and the stress factor soars
with the income tax bracket and seat on the board;
lengthy management meetings turn dark hair to grey
and the habit increases to sixty-a-day.

After the funeral, a comforting fag
rekindles affection - a nostalgic drag
as the smoke signals rise and the ashes cool off -
she recalls a hot kiss and a terminal cough.