Smoking Ban

This poem was written in a local pub, the year the public spaces smoking ban came into law in the UK. A friend relayed to me how he had seen a punter light up his cigarette in the pub as a matter of habit, only to then realise that it was no longer acceptable. The poem probably needs a little tuning, but I quite like the rawness and immediacy of it in this form.

“Oh shit, I’ve sparked up.”
Long time smoker, in
the pub. He rushes
outside with a half
burned tabacco stick,
still lit. No longer
law, now etiquette.

By: J.P.Norridge

Filed under: Projects / Poetry & Prose