Cigarettes and Cherry Gum

Cigarettes and Cherry Gum


I learned to love
The taste of cigarettes  
And cherry gum
Never was a smoker
Swore up to high heaven
I’d never date one
Hated the smell
Knew too well the cost
Money better spent elsewhere
Not to mention health
But you were cool about it
Never lit up around me
And I never caught you 
With anything more
Than a pack of cherry gum
In your back pocket
But I could taste it
In your mouth
Every time you kissed me
It’s a flavour
I’ve come to miss



Words: ©2020LCR

Image: CCO

Submitted to: Poets and Storytellers United #47 - Meme Madness



Comments

  1. Yes, I can see we could miss something we disliked, because the we miss the person involved. I wouldn't have been able to kiss a smoker more than once, like kissing an ashtray to me! I am allergic to it. As my mother said, she never had to worry about me smoking!

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    1. I liked neither cigarettes nor cherry gum but the combination was something entirely different. Oh, but for one more taste.

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  2. Beautifully written! And such a subtle and surprising way of addressing the prompt.

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  3. Your poem brought back some memories from very long ago, Lori. Thank you for reminding me of cherry gum, which I’d completely forgotten. I wouldn’t be keen on cigarette-flavoured kisses these days as I gave up over 25 years ago and now can’t bear the smell let alone the taste. Back then, it was cool to smoke, and many of us chewed gum to mask the taste.

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    1. They've discontinued the cherry trident flavour I think. There definitely would have been no kisses without the gum! It was enough to mask the cigarettes and made an entirely new flavour. I was never a smoker but we made it a game that if I found his cigarettes I got to keep them. I only ever found the gum. I hope he's quit but we were just teenagers then and we've lost touch.

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  4. Such a sharp memory..it evokes so much

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    1. Thank you. Both the smell and the taste I can remember so clearly.

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  5. This is just perfect. I love the focus on the small but distinctive things we associate with the ones we love.

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    1. Thank you. It got to a point where I would crave the taste. Something I never thought I would like at all.

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  6. I remember sitting under a bush with a friend at school in the morning break smoking my first cigarette. I didn't inhale but it was flouting the rules that was so important. I smoked for a few years after leaving but in the end I gave up realising the taste was not to my fancy!

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    1. Good the habit didn't last long. I can see how breaking the rules would be the temptation and not the cigarettes.

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  7. Love this! Brought up a lot of old memories, scents, and tastes, that somehow you never forget.

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