sess-TEE-nah: Naught but a Marboro and coffee will suffice.

Derived from the Latin word sextus, which means sixth, a Sestina is a seldom used form of poetry that is almost mathematical in its form. There is no rhyme scheme, rather there is a scheme involving the recurrence of the final words in the initial six lines, in a rolling order. (Try to figure out the scheme.) After six of these stanzas, the sestina concludes with a tercet, or three line stanza that uses two of the recurring words in each line.

Lately I have found myself wanting

a Marboro cigarette for breakfast.

With this I require a cup of strong black coffee.

You see, my typical indulgences have grown stale

and lack the sustenance 

that I require in the morning.

Do not suggest I eat eggs or bacon in the morning

for that will leave me wanting

and I require a different sustenance

from my breakfast.

Besides, my bacon has goen moldy and the eggs have gone stale. 

I will stick with my Marboro and coffee.

Do you think God drinks coffee

when he rises in the morning?

Certainly his bacon is not moldy and his eggs are not stale.

He is never left wanting.

There is nothing lacking from his table at breakfast

yet he needs not worry about sustenance.

We who are animals need to worry about sustenance.

Yet still I say, "Give Me Coffee!"

and I shout, "I Will Have Marboro With My Breakfast!"

lest I be cranky in the morning

and be left, the rest of the day, unsatisfied and wanting.

This repetitiveness may one day grow stale.

Yet today it is not stale.

And I will choose, nay, DEMAND it for my morning sustenance

for today, that is what I find myself wanting.

There is nothing I would find more satisfying than strong black coffee

and a Marboro on this morning.

It is like eating a laxative for breakfast.

Is that not why we eat breakfast?

To prepare our bodies for the day, lest we feel sluggish and stale.

Oh, the glory of a shit in the morning.

It prepares me for my day more than any sustenance.

Perhaps tomorrow I will not reach for a Marboro and coffee

but will have a different sense of wanting.

However, today I am wanting for my breakfast

Only a Marboro and coffee that is not too stale

It is all the sustenance I need on this morning.