The Smoker's Cough

Lisa Jain Lakeman                                                                                                  Word Count: 157
5776 e 26th St.
Tucson, AZ
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                                The Smoker’s Cough
                                     By Lisa Jain Lakeman
            

The smoker’s cough was lost on the wind.
It was carried far and high,
Whispering in ears, sighing a lie,
“Smoke me, smoke me.”
A subliminal sigh.
Off to the store they go,
The ones who heeded that wheezing lying sigh.
“A pack,” says one.
“Two packs,” says another.
“Make it a carton,” says a third.
What a boon.
The doctors get rich off that one little hoarse coughing sigh.
Lakeman/Smoker’s Cough                                                                                                              2
“It’s lung cancer,” they say.
“Stop  smoking,” they say,
As their wallets get fatter.
The cigarette companies send out more test subjects,
On a very windy day,
Into a crowd of people,
Both young and old, rich and poor, coughing and coughing into the wind.
They don’t give a darn, just as long as their wallets get fatter and fatter.