In memoriam.

Lala’s mother passed away April 5, 2008, after losing her battle to ALL of the smoking diseases.

The poem won the Vizvary Poetry Award.

I grew up with the Marlboro man. Man, he was my kind of man.

Now I look upon my mother, and I grieve for this great scam.

Marlboro man made my heart quiver,

Marlboro truth makes my soul shiver.

Today my mom is weak and listless,

When Marlboro man had left me breathless,

& so too my mom.

Mom’s been on a ventilator; it’s been 10 days in ICU,

A tragedy at 65, but hey, she’s had a puff or two.

Can it still be that the glamour of it all,

And the politics & smoke can cover up her fall?

Let’s hope her speech is all there,

For Big Tobacco doesn’t care.

But I do, Mom.

Suddenly there are doctors: lung, heart, & therapy galore,

I like it better than finding Mom laying on that floor,

I’ve done just that—no oxygen to her brain,

Her lungs not working, thanks to tobacco strain.

She & we have a fighting chance,

if only we ignore the lobbyist’s stance,

I’m with you, Mom.

Big Tobacco wants our children, with gorgeous ladies & Joe Cools.

They have their money & their power, & their bevy of political fools.

If it’s a tobacco farmer that needs a living,

Come by my mom’s bed and start care-giving.

Don’t worry that she’s lonely for her home, friends, pets,

& her life,

Just offer her another smoke, or better yet,

why not your knife.

I love you, Mom. mom.

* You will find this poem on many health sites on the Web.  It is also an integral part of a Preventative Smoking Program in several Southern California School Districts. It has been included in anti-smoking, Congestive Heart Failure and C.O.P.D. victim's Workshops and Seminars throughout the country , and it has been included in thesis work in Canada. It has been published in the Washington Post & The Villager.