Smoking my six-hundredth last cigarette
Out of the studio skylight
Watching the ash as it rolls down the roof

Leaving a trail of gray-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