Darrell Arnold Darrell Arnold

Holy Smoke: The Mysticism of Cigarettes and Wine

 

I’ve figured it out

Sarah and the cigarettes

 

It’s a ritual

Primordial

 

And elemental

 

Fire

Water

Earth

And air

 

The match

Strikes

The striking strip

 

A flame

Sparked

 

Touched to the cigarette

 

This product of earth and sky

Which to earth and sky

It shall return

 

Momentarily

 

An inhale

A deep breath

Another drag

Another still

 

This substance

Of time

And tobacco seed

Of mineral damp

mixed with the solar energy

 

Returning

As ash

As smoke

 

And finishing off

This elemental and nearly, if not wholly,

Holy communion

 

Water transformed

 

A sip of wine

 

A medicine

Soothing to body

And

Lightening to mind

 

 

Warning: Smoking Kills!

(copyright) 2018 Darrell Arnold