Thank You for Smoking
Well, I’m moved in. Thanks to my mother, Jane and Ragin, and Randy and Connie– the couple who has taken me in. They all worked surprisingly hard. 
My new household consists of Connie and Randy, their daughters Adrian and Emily when they are on breaks from college, Zobida, who lives on the third floor, and a very large cat. Zobida is from Morrocco and has kindly been cooking for us this week. It is Ramadan at the moment so we have to wait until the sun goes down, but it’s worth the wait! Today is Yom Kippur, as well. For some reason I’ve been learning a lot recently about Muslim and Jewish holidays.
I’ve been so stressed out with this whole moving thing (not to mention the hundred and one other things I have on my plate); and my back is just killing me. The whole thing makes me wish I were a smoker, just because it is reputedly such a stress reliever (fear not, Deana of the Smoke-free State; I can’t and won’t because I am asthmatic, and so for me smoking would only be a spectacularly fast way to commit suicide. Much faster than the ordinary smoker.)
I wish I could smoke
Disgusting yet sexy
Sophisticated yet trashy
Inhale
Scratch of lungs
Hold
Release
Wreath
Sweet smell of stress
Melting away
Weakness is humanity
We all need something
A release
A high
For some it’s religion
For some success
For some cigarettes
Breathe in
Breathe out
And know
The weakness
Means you’re human
Earthy and beautiful.
October 2nd, 2006 at 2:49 pm
Very well written, Mel. Definitely one of your better ones so far.
October 2nd, 2006 at 6:06 pm
Well, I don’t find smoking terribly sexy. But maybe that’s because I’ve also had asthma in my past (not these days, but I still have the memories of the coughing and the less than stellar impact on some of my lifestyle choices. Kinda like Jewishness, really)
October 2nd, 2006 at 9:20 pm
Hmm. Jewishness as something you outgrow? No. You can’t escape it, Phil. Sorry. May as well try to make your peace with it.
October 2nd, 2006 at 10:05 pm
Thank-you, Parke. I have more like that but at the moment they are too raw. Maybe I’ll be able to post them later, when I have progressed into a new stage. They are kind of dark. But I sense I’m moving out of that place; slowly but surely. And this is a good thing.