Sanity Stick Poem by Allen Steble The Philosophical Poet

I see them all smoking
One cigarette after the other
Finding some calm in every drag
Some sanity in every puff
I once was a smoker myself
That shit is nasty
Just like life can be
So we savour every breath of it
Even relish in it's bitterness
I started because I was curious
Mainly as to why it was so popular
The taste, the smell, the sensation
All profoundly unlikable
I think that's what makes it so good
Many say it's the nicotine
That makes smoking so addictive
They may be right...it is a drug
On a psychological level though
I think it has always been
A bit deeper...
The unpredictability of life
Is like that bitter-sweet puff stick
Full of the bad chemicals of misery
Slowly burning with uncertainty And pain
The smoke just gives a person
One thing...
A sense of control
And with that control,
A simple statement
'You have hurt me
So many times life
So here is a big middle finger
To the pain
That is out of my hands'