Second Day -- No Smokey the Bandit!

Groggily waking into the day 2 of no cigarettes. I miss my morning cig with coffee already. Off to the gym goes I. But before I go, I'm re-reading a poem I wrote about my first failed quitting attempt. Originally a 5 part poem, the Beloit Poetry Journal only wanted to publish the first part and when they said that, I pretty much saw they were right that it said it all.

Smoking Card
Included in each box of nicorette gum is a wallet-card on which you are supposed to write “my main reasons for quitting smoking are:”

The first time I quit I got my wisdom teeth pulled.
You can’t smoke for 48 hours after having teeth removed.
Something about how wounds heal.
And pain medications can be lovely.
It was a warmer cold turkey, and you were arriving in two weeks.
I put up signs with the date.
When I thought of smoking, I thought,
The perfect girl does not smoke.
I know, I know.




Now I'm out of the house and off to work, where the scene looks something like this: