FRED BENNETT’S CIGARETTES
‘With best wishes for a Happy Christmas And a Victorious New Year,
From the Princess Mary and Friends at Home.’
A lifetime since your lungs were decommissioned
your tobacco issue comes under the hammer,
foil wrapped for freshness, and turning to dust.
The bidders are almost like the shell-shocked,
touching extremities to check they are still there –
the tip of a nose, the lobe of an ear, a fontanelle.
One waves an auction catalogue in surrender
as you elevate a Lucifer to the tip, and inhale.
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