Poems – December 2009

Inhalation to Death
by Mervis Emelife (18 years old-Lagos)

People say I was well brought up
That my parents showed me a good path to tread
Up until my teenage years, obedience was my second name
And people were glad to be associated with someone like me

However, as time passed, so did my innocence
All traces of focus and humility were soon gone
All that was left of me was a heart made of stone
To cap it up, I moved around with the worst teens
Needless to say, I ended up badly
Took the first inhalation of cigarette
And loved the feeling in my body
So, I continued filling my body with nicotine

I enjoyed the fact that I was recognized by the toughest
Gradually, I could not do without ten sticks a day
I smoked at every available opportunity
I became a socially acceptable guy.

One fateful morning, I felt a pain in my chest
Alas, at the hospital, I was diagnosed
With a yet to be determined disease
I can barely walk without taking a rest in between.

What would it have cost me to say NO”?
What have I gained from smoking and stealing?
I have only reaped the fruit of my seeds
Smoking is really an inhalation of death.

Smiling and Suffering
by Adeola Rotimi (19 years old)

Why let your future fade away
Through what you can avoid?
The fear of smoking
Is the beginning of wisdom

Touch not, the flooded paper
Filled with hay, it’s all poison
Light it up, it burns like pepper
Run from this death trap

For every smoke you drag
A quarter of day is lost
What faster way to kill yourself
Than smoking a stick a day

Warnings to you innocent ones
Whose friends smoke by their side
Every second hand smoke you breathe
You become liable to cancer and stroke.

My Own Master
by Tolu Amusan (24 years old)

At last, I quit the coffin nails,
Those dreaded cancer sticks.
I yield to them no longer.
I shall not receive `a fix`, no more!
My master is not cigarettes.
It’s really a dangerous affair

From now on it’s me.
It is I who rule my life
And I will live in it smoke free!
As I kicked the habit
My heart is better
You too can quit the menace

Vanity Upon Vanity
by Helen Brown (Lagos)

I just want to have it
It can’t be wrong
If it feels so right and good
Why not have it?

I would rather be thoughtful
So I don’t do anything hurtful
That will make me eternally regretful
For the actions I took so little.

Don’t start what is dangerous
Your health is more important
Than the poison, called cigarette
A word is enough for the wise.

The choices we make today
Come back to make or mar us
Be careful with the friends you keep
Your health is your wealth.

Lethal Pleasure
by Tolu Amusan (24 years old)

I take my drag
Off my lethal pleasure
As I wait upon the day
The lethal part kicks in

Drag after drag
I continue with the habit
The pleasure kicks in
My addiction increases

So many like me
Awaiting the day
This lethal addiction
Will finally be overcome

Stress and despair are everywhere
Poverty stares us on the face
Smoking is my consolation
What a wrong choice to make.