Anonymous

Broken Promises

Each time you light the harmless delusion, the disgust on my face grows

I protest but you quickly put me out

“Stop busting my balls”, you say, as though your masculinity can end any conversation

“Im stressed and it’s just a cigarette”

Though stress is not the only thing it relieves

It drags all my respect and your lung span with it

But the relief from strain is worth a tooth stain

You inhale

Your body turns into an x-ray

and I watch the poison flowing through you into your cancerous lungs

Your split tongue slithers out empty promises

“I swear I will change”

I wrap my arms around your ashy body - my nose burns and I recoil

The smell of smoke surrounds you

it has become your signature cologne saved in your hair and the cracks of your skin

My anger and your cigarette burn on

as I watch your teeth darken in hue, I grow tired of trying to stop you

My trust and hope are continuously set alight and stubbed out

As a little girl,

I watched as you angrily wandered around

searching

I had locked them in my jewellery box

Your health, my most precious possession.

But you never noticed my coughing or my lack of desire to be within a metre of you.

The approaching end of that cigarette is the approaching end of my love

The cup you dropped your ash in is the same one I drank from

My anger and your cigarette burning on

I’m waiting for my ignorance to return

so I can look up to my dad,

It’s 6 am,

it’s cold out

and the only warmth insight is the orange burning light eating away at the paper of the

only thing you seem to care about,

You ignore me whilst I watch flicked ash scatter on the table,

the wind takes it away along with our conversation.

“It’s just a cigarette, it’s not that bad”

“It's just a cigarette”,

it destroys your body

“it’s just a cigarette”,

yet I’ve seen you smoke 10

But no matter how hard I endeavour,

I know the stress reliever prevails forever