The Smoke Billows
Put down the cigarette, pick up your life,
one day at a time, leave behind the strife.
Watch yourself grow stronger with each passing day,
feel your diaphragm contract in a healthier way.
Escape this path of self-destruction and pain.
Enough of the hacking cough, echoing in vain
That reverberates through each room,
and the trembling body that spells out your doom.
Give up the dependence on the oxygen tank,
and the rescue inhaler, your desperate crank.
Clutched tightly in fingers, a sign of your fight,
for a future that’s brighter, for a life full of light.
For your wife and children who hold you so dear.
They love and adore you, and want you near.
You’ve seen the statistics, you know what they say,
read the pamphlets and heard it in every way.
Time to make a new quit date
as you prepare once more to change your fate.
Prisca Mbonu is a current medical student at The Burnett School of Medicine based in Fort Worth, Texas. She possesses a deep passion for narrative medicine. Throughout her time in medical school, she has led initiatives to integrate the humanities into medical training through various projects and programs.