No Smoking Poem by John Carter Brown

My wife became a smokeless-zone,
October ninety-four;
She said: 'I've had enough of these,
I'm smoking them no more.

They haven't done me any good,
And cost me lots of money;
To work out the exact amount
Would not be very funny.

To smoke like all my mates
I thought a clever thing to do;
We laughed behind the teacher's back
While puffing in the loo.

But in the end, just like they say,
The last laugh was on me:
I'm only thirty-two, and yet
I feel like forty-three!

At last I've realized that
From lung cancer there's no cure;
I'm just so glad I've packed them in,
This time for good, I'm sure.'

(Written Oct 1994)