Ashtrays are for ash

I'm sometimes accused, by occasional female visitors, of having some 'manic' habits.  Well, may be so... maybe I do have one or two.  One does develop some of these when living alone.  Not that I make any excuses and I certainly would not have it any other way.  They are MY habits... live with them (or not...).  After all, we all have them.

Here's one of my 'old chestnuts'... using ashtrays for what they were intended!

Ashtrays are for ash

Ashtrays are for ash
they’re not for other trash
They’re not for chewing gum wrappers
Or for cellophane flappers

One’s tobacco packaging
Should strictly be for banishing
In the proper bin for trash

A tea bag's not for ashtrays
forming quagmires with the ash
tea bags should be banished
In the proper bin for trash

An olive pit may find
It’s flexibly forgiven,
if one is so inclined
But rules are rules
And not just for fools

Ashtrays are for ash
oh and cigarette butts
and ne'er for other trash!

Update Sunday 10th October 2010

Following some comments on my Facebook post on 'Ashtrays are for ash'... I was errr... moved to write this 'follow up' poem on the subject.

I wish she didn’t smoke

I wish she didn’t smoke
it would be better for her health
I wish she didn’t smoke
it would be better for her wealth

But ashtrays are for ash I’ve said
but I wish I wasn’t so brash
She put her gash
and cellophane wrapper
in my ash trash
I wish I wasn’t so brash
My tongue at times can lash
I wish I was less of a snapper

She’s of a sensitive disposition
and my reaction upset her condition
she takes unkindly to admonition
and I wish she didn’t smoke

I wish she didn’t smoke
it would have held my tongue
it was really just a joke

I wish she hadn’t smoked
I might have revoked
those feelings of hurt invoked

I wish she hadn’t smoked
I may have been able to keep
those other feelings now cloaked
that still run e'er so deep!