We raised tobacco when I was a kid
and lived in a Tobacco Culture
so I am intimately familiar with
burning tobacco "beds" and placing the "canvas"
experienced with "pegging" it out, as well as the setter
Did mye time with a hoe in mye hand
"Topped" it and pulled "suckers"
and stomped the guts out of millions of "backer worms"
have used Tobacco sticks, tobacco knives, tobacco spikes
I know what it means, for it to be "in case"
How to strip it, and grade it, and tie it in hands

Tobacco paid for our school clothes
and our Christmas
because it was sold in December
Mama cried when I started smoking, but she got over it
because we lived in a Tobacco Culture
and if I just smoked cigaretts
I was bound to be attractive to the girls

Marlboro was mye brand
Hell, I was a Marlboro Man
I could rope, and ride, and kick ass
as long as a Marlboro was hangin outa mye mouth
They say "sex sells" and all of us Marlboro men had been duped
by the Tobacco Companies slick advertising...you see
Tobacco is a woman

and not just any woman
but a b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l woman
Eve, Jezebel, Cleopatria, Marie Antionette, Marlyn Monroe
all rolled into one
oh yeah, man, you can have her, but it will cost you
in the end

I laid the cigarettes down thirty years ago
then along came "smokeless tobacco"
and I dated her for a few years
finally we just drifted apart
I really don't know what happened

But I still hear her voice
whenever I pass a convenience market:

......................................
......roger...........................
over here roger.......................
......................................
......................................
................I've missed you.......
..........you never call me anymore...
......................................
......................................
can't we just be friends?.............
......................................
......................................
......................................
one little taste......................
......................................
......................................
.............nobody will know.........
......................................

Tobacco had a hold on me
and even though I'm free of her
at times, I still struggle
and even if I live to be 100
there will still be a place in mye heart for her
because
Tobacco is a woman.





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