Smoking my six-hundredth last cigarette

Out of the studio sky-light

Watching the ash as it rolls down the roof

Leaving a trail of grey-white


All through its short life it gives of itself

Giving and giving and slowly diminishing

Until there isn't a crumb of it left

It no longer is, it's a snowball in negative


Wandering home along Marlborough Road

I realize in amazement

That I have been, for how long I don't know,

Avoiding the cracks in the pavement


All through this short life we give of ourselves

Giving and giving and slowly diminishing

Leaving a mark that will gradually fade

Ash in the breeze, snowballs in negative