Smoke
It is bad enough to have a cigarette and no match, but it is worse to want a cigarette while you are smoking one.
Kay Sage
SourceLicence:Public domain (US, unrenewed)
It is bad enough to have a cigarette and no match, but it is worse to want a cigarette while you are smoking one.
Smoke starts with a small, familiar annoyance: you're craving a cigarette and can't light one. Anyone who has wanted something just out of reach will recognize that feeling. Then the speaker turns it around and claims something worse, which is wanting a cigarette while you're already smoking one. Having the thing in your hand doesn't end the wanting.
That second situation is odd, and a little funny, but it also stings. The speaker is describing a kind of craving that can't be satisfied, since the object of desire is right there and the longing continues anyway. The poem never says it, but it hints that this might apply to more than cigarettes, to any habit or desire that keeps asking for more even as it's being fed.
The mood is dry and deadpan. The short lines and flat, matter-of-fact tone make it sound like a casual remark, while the idea underneath is rather bleak.