David Lee
(born) 1944


Cigarettes

Now Roy Bob Jamerson
had a heart attackt about 6 months
before he died or seven
Doctor told him he had to give it up
the smoking or he'd have anothern
he sed how much good will it do?
Doctor sez it'll add days or weeks
mebbe months tacked on the end
like fourth of July cotton mill bonus

Roy Bob Jamerson sed bullshit
it aint worth it
that wasn't enough to buy
two bottles of cheap whiskey
he had this in law
by marriage been quitting smoking
for moren 5 years and he's a dam mess
with his whole life because of it
goes out to drink a drink
he'll have to have a smoke or 2
when he gets home his wife
which is my wife's cousin
rattles like a chainsaw
when she smells it on him
they'll holler till he's had enough
slams the screendoor
goes out to get drunk and smoke, all her fault
he'll take up with some woman
spend the whole night out
testing the back springs in his car
next day use up all his time
thinking a excuse to his wife
he'll go have a drink to help
there he goes again needing a smoke
sed it was one time
he didn't get hardly no sleep
for a month trying to quit smoking
and it was a terribile experience

I haven't got no time
to lose sleep he sed and I'm too old
to get drunk and chase women all night
so he told his daughter right then to go
buy him some Chesterfields or Pell Mells
make sure they given her
some matches to light them with

he smoked 2 or 3 packs of cigarettes
for the rest of his life
every day before he died
and then it wasn't a heart attackt
but the emphysema
he sed it was because
when he was a boy
he had to clean out the chicken house
by hisself all them years
without no help
all that new ammonia in the air
ate up the insides of his lungs
ruint him
he wasn't never the same
smoking didn't have nothing to do with it

his brother sed that was a fact
but it wasn't their fault
he was the oldest
got started by hisself from their daddy
he had his own way to do it all
oncet he had his mind set on a thing
whether it was chicken shit or smoking cigarettes
he'd stay with it till he finished
Roy Bob had some principles to live his life by.