Lethal Beauty

Whilst revising for my exams at Uni, I was distracted by the light catching smoke drifting from a cigarette in an ashtry on the windowledge. I was so struck by the beauty created by the sunlight casting rainbows in the smoke, that I took a photograph. Looking at the photo a couple of years later, I wrote this poem.

***

A break – a few moments rest
From reading.
The sunlight pours in through the window
Illuminating the spider-web tendrils
Of smoke,
Drifting slowly upwards.

I hover my hand
Above the ashtray,
Caressing the chiffon-like strips,
Playing my fingers through
The fairy-ribbons,
Tying them in smoke-laces.

The sun retreats to hide
Behind a cloud.
Once again my attention returns
To revision: back
To my books
Studying as I should.

But my intentions are short-lived –
It’s June and the sun
Does not want to stay away.
It returns, casting rainbow glances
Through the hazy wisps,
Still swirling upwards.

I reach across the table,
Grab his camera
And photograph my hand:
Later developed to show
Rainbow curls, catching each joint
In kaleidoscopes of light and colour.

The cigarette burns out, untouched
And I sit, watching the space
Where the ethereal threads had been.
I wonder at the beauty
Produced by something
So ultimately lethal.