THE CIGARETTE LADY - poem

smokes in the bathroom
away from her children
away from her husband
the children are at school
and her husband at work.

She’s home to wash and cook
and be there, for them.

After she’s finished her smoke
she feels better, doing something
no one knows, but it bothers her.
So she comes out of the bathroom,
like all ladies should do

and walk the streets,
to flick their ashes at the men
who kept them in the bathroom
all those years, many years ago.

(c) Richard L. Provencher