How Things Have Changed Today Poem by Mark Heathcote

Lovers in the sixties would light up
one another's cigs
in a cherished moment each-inhale
the others after sex.
They'd smoke one strait-after-another
discarding their flecks
of burning ash like a '70s sports newscaster.
It didn't cost their paychecks.

Now perspective, lovers request non-smokers.
How things have changed today,
No smoking areas - that list of cancers
growing longer, day by day,
the glams have gone, leaving just the stigma
of nicotine-stained teeth
it's dirty -costly, unhealthy, dogma.
Is all that still plumes from its wreath?