THE LAST FIVE-MINUTE PROMISE:

I PUT IT OFF

Midnight 2000

my last cigarette!

It is but a moment gone..

smoked it like it was 1999...cuz it was

Sat up...

Just a few minutes,

Have to give my lungs a breather

so sleep...I put it off

Can't sleep if I can't breathe!

So I put it off for just a minute

Just a silly promise to myself..

To put off smoking

So I could dwell..on breath again!

and now to sleep,

perhaps to dream

see what tomorrow brings.

I wake on the first of January..

2000...

and first things first...

A cigarette!..then fully awake...I put it off!

Lungs screaming like I insulted its mama..

but I put it off...

For just a minute.

The body clenches,

the hands reach for-anything!

As I put it off for another minute..

It passes...

I wonder if I look anything like I feel...

My lungs are howling in my head..in my head!

My brain closes the door as I put it off for another minute

But it too is now reaching...

for a compromise,

for a way out..

cuz I feel my chest quivering..tightening..

Don't even look in the mirror..that too,

I put it off.

We are now counting in increments of five..

for five minutes we put our lungs off,

as they get more air..

but still,

They moan in ghostly pain..uhhhhh!

So we put it off for another increment of 5

to run to the store...

on a crazy idea the hands want to stay busy-bag of baby carrots!

SERIOUSLY?

Yes! We are desperate!

but those silly orange bits

help put it off for another while...

The goal is now an hour,

in increments of 5 with a few carrots in between.

Soon enough tho feels an eternity we reach a day increment.

The lungs and life are sly, tho...

Occasionally murmurs "we are doing so good,

we deserve one today",

and so we promise we will after five minutes more.

It is now 6:33pm on October 30th, in the year of Our Lord two thousand and twenty-six!

The lungs no longer care, e'en bout the carrots,

but I keep that last five-minute promise in my back pocket...

Just in case...