Poetry for a cause….

ashes

She flicks her last cigarette
on the ground and steps on it
then grabs a broom to sweep
the street of the ashes
that remind her of him.
She doesn’t stop
until the asphalt is clean–
no filters left in the ditch,
until there is only the quiet
that comes after the sound
of the last embers fizzle out
like her memories of him:
how he loved to smoke
after they made love, how in turn,
she loved to watch him hold fire
at his fingertips without getting burned,
how the smoke he inhaled through his nose
always looked like they were tendrils
of her hair he loved to smell.
She sweeps these thoughts
into her dustpan and allows herself
to only recall the sound of her voice
when she promised to quit smoking
at his death bed.

Dear readers,

Please sign this petition I authored. I really need your help in getting this message out. I will be eternally grateful.

-rax

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Sign now.

http://www.PetitionOnline.com/ghwphil/

* Over 30 M Filipinos will suffer debilitating diseases and painful deaths due to smoking. Another 30 M Filipinos will suffer the same due to second hand smoke.

* 40 of the chemicals in cigarette smoke are carcinogens, like carbon monoxide, butane (used as lighter fluid), cyanide and formaldehyde, arsenic (rat poison), and ammonia (toilet cleaner). Ads do not disclose this.

Right now the textual health warnings for tobacco products cannot be understood or appreciated by the Filipino people. Other countries have recognized this and have since used picture based warnings in order to warn their citizens of the hazards of smoking. Statistics will show that such method is effective as it has significantly improved the overall health of their citizens.

The Filipino people have a right to life and health just as much as other citizens. They have the right to a better if not the best method to warn them of the danger inherent in smoking. The text warning right now is STILL NOT ENOUGH. Many are still smoking and dying while the young ones are curiously taking up the habit not knowing its effects, creating a vicious cycle of death that could be prevented through the use of picture based health warning that is universally understood by the people, especially the many who cannot read and understand.

Sign now. Because a picture can save millions of lives.

http://www.PetitionOnline.com/ghwphil

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