He records a little song for a Smoking Girl…
Smoking all that much has got her eyes
Pinched and a little lined – so the misery
Of cigarettes deserves a song. Prize
For doing anything, catastrophe
In small doses, smoke cuts into a face
Almost as deep as Benzedrine and booze.
Still she’s a lovely girl in every place
Because she is so young. O she will lose
Her surfaces of head in love and time
Though all the rest stay smooth and be close-pored.
Her legs would make a blind man smile, and rime -
Her belly and the thing in sweet accord
Years from now will cry, Forgive, forgive
My cigarettes, I swallowed smoke alive.
~James Whitehead
image Girl Smoking
