the art of smoking

i remember when it seemed like the whole world smoked

you could get the fancy table lighters & ashtrays

at department stores located among the fine china & flatware

even at McDonald's there were gold foil ashtrays on the tables

in the hospital recovery rooms you would find ashtrays

& books of matches could be had for a nickel & a song

at nearly every restaurant diner & gas station often with

the branding of the establishment on its cover

even in elementary school we would make pottery

for our parents an ashtray that would be fired in a kiln

so common & so ubiquitous was the fact of smoking

that in the disaster movie EARTHQUAKE [1974]

after the temblor does its damage a character warns

another character to go in the house to turn off the gas

& that man rushes inside with a lit cigarette between his lips

to turn off the gas & the house blows up