You could ask anyone, and they would all tell you that this is the brightest the sun has been in days. In truth, it was a blessing, like a solid yacht rock block in the middle of a vast sea of classic rock.

Scientists are prone to say many things, amongst them, “Mankind needs light and dark. Without the balance, society would descend into a chaos it has never seen before.”

After about an hour of intense natural light, I fully understood why we needed darkness. Did I need to see that woman lift the hatch of an ashtray, and finger through nasty tar and ashes, and who knows what, in order to find a cigarette butt with three drags, maybe eight left?

She half smiles as she puts one of three butts up to her dry, chapped lips. She thrives on the wastes of youth. The youth are so stupid and wasteful. She would probably say that out loud if she were not trying so hard to light up. Turning her head, tilting it right as far as she could, lighter hand shaky, the flame bouncing, she closes her eyes and inhales. Dead skin from her lips cracks off and lands on her sweater. On closer inspection, there are at least five more similar pieces of dried flesh accumulating there.

She had not heard the word healthy in just over two years. She shuddered, tossed her head back, and exhaled a puff of smoke. She coughed before taking another drag.

Relevance taps me on the shoulder, and I see her six years earlier. She is smoking a long thin cigarette, a Virginia Slim menthol. She is the most beautiful smoker you have ever seen or imagined. When she smoked, the world tangoed. You covet her sexy lungs. Somehow, she makes emphysema so desirable, something you had to have. The phallic stiff cig and the moist voluptuous vaginal lips kiss and intercourse.

Abruptly, she has a coughing fit, and as if she’s done it a thousand times before, she puts a fresh butt up to her lips, and chain-smokes. She drops the old butt and steps on it, swiveling her foot, extinguishing the living fuck out of it.

By the way, I asked the smoking woman if it was bright enough for her. She thought about it, enough so that she pursed her lips and responded, “Yeah.”

#JamesBrownWouldSmokePCP”UntilThatGotHardToFind”AndCocaineMixedWithTobaccoInKoolCigarettes