Dead these five years, she meets me on the beach at Easthaven

Laughter in her voice and I say she is restored to me, saving

My joie de vivre. “Not restored,” she protests, “Remember what

I was like, so very poisoned and diseased, day after day grotty

With addiction, you wouldn’t want that back.” “Yes, I would!” I tell

Her, “But you were making a point.” “The point is I am not restored,

I’m refreshed.” “Last week the sea was flat and dull, as if it mourned

For someone, but today the sun is a blade cutting away all shoddiness

So that the wind whips up the water into white breakers, fresh

As the clouds, in the shallows.” “Nice illustration,” she acknowledges

“But if you let a wave drain through your hand you’ll find you’ve dredged

Out little residues of shit and plastic showing it’s not as fresh as it looks;

With me, the old has gone, the new is here, I’m refreshed, not just shook

Up and restored. And you should know, it’s a Bible word, your New

Testament studies give you Saint Paul writing to a slave owner to

Free a runaway slave, “Refresh my heart in Messiah” he pleads,

Intending that the owner’s heart will be refreshed as he reads.”

“You are a better scholar than I thought” I told her, but then

I wondered if it was just a kind of implant available in heaven.

“I read St Paul on earth,” she said, “And nothing is simply given

Here, you must want it with a true and wholesome craving,

So that being without it would be, even here, a real distress,

As I craved, and every drop of your sea craves, to be fresh.”

 

 

I have never vaped but my brother and my daughter did so

Before they died, both too young, leaving me with a shadowed

Image of the habit, its bold effusions marked by death, the bright

Smoke they puffed so easily in restaurants linked to the white

Output of crematoria chimneys. Provision for the vaper is astonishingly

Rich and varied. An iPad screen grab from a vast catalogue gives me

Strawberry, Strawberry Ice, Watermelon Strawberry, Strawberry Passion,

Strawberry Nic Salt, Strawberry Coconut Ox, and you can reject fashion

In favour of Nicotine Grade X, while the vape pens are ever suaver.

With more than seven thousand selling points in Scotland you’re no farther

From a vape than a bet, especially in the poorest areas of the country.

You might guess that sucking chemicals into your body is not wonderful

For your health, but as vapes are also addictive you are unlikely to stop.

Police suspect that half of all,outlets are controlled by criminals who want

To sell drugs or launder money and may not be nice to know. Capitalism

As usual has been smart in making a cheap addictive provision

for the world’s poor, the state capitalism of China, forbidden

to sell artificial flavours at home but anything it likes elsewhere,

being particularly effective. So, smile along with Jimmy Graham

in Gourock as he sucks his Bubble Gum ‘n Jelly Babies, vaping,

as he blows his Football Pie ‘n Brown Sauce into the air of spring,

as he draws on his Irn Bru ‘n Isotonic Vitamins to make him daring

enough for Big Babs Brown who caresses her tonsils with Sharing-

-For -Two Bananas ‘n Cream!  Uff-Puff, Uff -Puff, since there’s no escape

From the pleasure of this habit, and you’ll be victims of the rape  

Of the poor by the rich, say goodbye as you die with a vape!