What would you like for breakfast madam
We have tea and toast
Bacon and eggs
Bangers and hash
Sir just listening to you
Makes me green
With nausea
One cigarette and a coffee please
But Madam
The Federal Ministry of Health has warned…
O please speak not of them
They make me blue
With frustration
They speak very ignorantly
For scientists
And the World Health Organization has warned…
Stop! I am turning yellow
With bile
They live opulently
At our expense
But you must have breakfast Madam
The Doctors have warned…
Enough! Now I am red!
With outrage
They spread fear and paranoia
To the masses for lots of money
Madam I must protest
Coffee and cigarettes are bad for you
Protest? What do you know?
When I look into the blackness of my coffee
I see the infinite Universe
I taste the earth in the bitter espresso
Its texture is like primeval mud
It tells me where it’s been
Who it’s met
Cherry, caramel, wood smoke
Kenya, Brazil, Sumatra, Guatemala
Each cup reminds me
Of the glory of earth
And everything in it
Before it rouses me to vigor
What a miracle it is
Well madam that may be true of coffee
It can never be true of cigarettes
A filthy addiction
A filthy addiction you say?
Of course you believe them don’t you?
When they say it’s the advertising
Someone has to pay the medical bills
So we are cast as no longer agents of free choice
Able to enjoy
The bite of raw smoke at the back of the throat
The pungent smell of burning tobacco
For me - the aroma
Of childhood memories
Sitting on my father’s knee
The rush spreading through the body
You will smile
A smile to start the day
Another miracle and it’s not even 7 in morn yet!
Be gone with your bacon and toast, sir
You even look like pork
Do you eat well, drink well, sleep well?
Yes Madam I do
I sleep 8 hours a night,
I am a teetotaler and a vegetarian
Yes, but do you eat well, drink well and sleep well?
One cigarette and a coffee please
The breakfast of champions
Lesley Agams
June 4, 2011
Abuja
No comments:
Post a Comment