Arms and legs crossed, he sat
At the shining kitchen table, listening,
With a cigarette clenched in one fist.
Faithful as a little doggie,
That cigarette followed him
Through every stairwell, doorway and shirt
Forests of pine air fresheners
Observations of the surgeon general
And pleas of his abstaining family
It ignored the jolly roger cigarettes,
The jokes, the cancerstick graffiti
Scrawled up the paperside of nicotine
It followed him through thick and thin,
No farther away than a reach,
Or a whistle, for forty years
Until the day it fastened on his neck,
Clamping deep within his chest
To claim a life it could not redeem
The rest of him was untouched;
Only the wound of his one vice
Killed him. We learned too late that
One should choose their companions carefully;
For an evil companion will eventually
Invite their friend home.
For good.
Relatively Speaking 