Guardians of Massacre

Enough already, talk of guarding health,
As though the Congress really gave a damn,
When looking after Big Tobacco’s wealth
Instead, it's making grants-in-aid a sham.

For what’s the good of NIH’s work
To find a cure for tumors in the lungs
If FDA’s control is just a quirk?
One might as well prevaricate in tongues.

Supposedly the FDA controls
The drugs that we’re allowed to take as meds,
And those that don’t work, keeps them off the rolls,
Illicit as the trade a cartel spreads.

So what of nicotine that kills as sure
A thousand U.S. smokers every day,
Requiring that industry allure
Another thousand kids, told it’s okay?

It uses ads that promise them it’s “lite,”
Or tastes like fruit, as if that makes it sound,
It doesn’t take much time for kids to bite.
To act grown up, their fantasies abound.

What’s more mature? To try and use the gum
That, irony or ironies, contains
The nicotine wherefrom the horrors come,
That puts to death, once flowing in the veins?

To sanction drugs, the FDA spends years.
In minutes, Congress ought to pass a bill
That governs slaughter, even though some peers
From states that grow tobacco say to kill.