Mr. McSquirelly
Joe Bananas
I was searching through books.google.com when I came across this poem called "The Last Cigar." It was published in 1887 by a man by the name of J. Warren Fabens.
The Last Cigar
It was off the blue Canaries,
A glorious summer day,
I sat upon the quarter-deck,
And whiffed my cares away;
And as the volumed smoke arose
Like incense in the air,
I heaved a sigh to think, in sooth,
It was my last cigar.
I leaned against the quarter rail
And gazed down in the sea;
E'en there the airy wreaths of smoke
Were curling gracefully.
Oh, what had I at such a time
To do with wasting care?
Alas, the trembling tear proclaimed
It was my last cigar!
I watched the ashes as it came
Fast nearing to the end;
I watched it as a friend will watch
Beside his dying friend;
I could not speak, I could not stir,
But like a statue there,
I whiffed the massy volumes out
Of that divine cigar!
At length the pile of ashes fell,
Like child from mother torn,
And the smoke that I drew in and out
Grew warm and yet more warm.
I took one last, one lingering whiff--
A long whiff of despair--
And threw it from me--spare the tale,
It was my last cigar!
I've seen the land of all I loved
Fade in the distance dim,
And sighed above the blighted heart
Where once proud hope had been;
But never have I felt a thrill
Which could with that compare,
When off the blue Canaries
I smoked my last cigar!
The Last Cigar
It was off the blue Canaries,
A glorious summer day,
I sat upon the quarter-deck,
And whiffed my cares away;
And as the volumed smoke arose
Like incense in the air,
I heaved a sigh to think, in sooth,
It was my last cigar.
I leaned against the quarter rail
And gazed down in the sea;
E'en there the airy wreaths of smoke
Were curling gracefully.
Oh, what had I at such a time
To do with wasting care?
Alas, the trembling tear proclaimed
It was my last cigar!
I watched the ashes as it came
Fast nearing to the end;
I watched it as a friend will watch
Beside his dying friend;
I could not speak, I could not stir,
But like a statue there,
I whiffed the massy volumes out
Of that divine cigar!
At length the pile of ashes fell,
Like child from mother torn,
And the smoke that I drew in and out
Grew warm and yet more warm.
I took one last, one lingering whiff--
A long whiff of despair--
And threw it from me--spare the tale,
It was my last cigar!
I've seen the land of all I loved
Fade in the distance dim,
And sighed above the blighted heart
Where once proud hope had been;
But never have I felt a thrill
Which could with that compare,
When off the blue Canaries
I smoked my last cigar!
