At dVerse De is hosting the Quadrille (44 words) with an invitation to write a poem using the word, or a form of the word, gasp.
dVerse Poets – Quadrille – Poetry is a Kind of Gasp
Photo: A stretcher bearer provides a cigarette to a wounded soldier, WW1, found at stokesentinel.co.uk
“He lighted a cigarette, and in the curling smoke of it caught visions ….” Jack London
Note: a gasper was in old English parlance, a cigarette, especially amongst the military.
Last Gasp Gaspers for bullets to disappear pain, nineteen to the dozen, while the hack digs my wound. "No filter" he said as I screamed. What a drag, I thought as I sucked the stub, hoping for visions of heaven exhaling life with my last gasp. Copyright 2023 ©️Paul Vincent Cannon All Rights Reserved ®️
parallax 
you go hard on this one 🔥 great quadrille!
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Thank you so much Jay, much appreciated.
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Powerful writing
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Thank you very much Paula, appreciated.
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This one hits hard with its poignancy and stark reality, Paul! Gorgeously rendered 💜💜
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Memories – I listened to the last of that generation as a child in their background, horrible stuff, really hard.
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I hope he got his heaven.
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Yes, me too, awful stuff to go through.
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I love the words you used here😉
Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone
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Thank you so much Cheryl. 🙂
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Poignant but fantastic wordplay, Paul.
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Vivid image and poignant given the recent release of an image a soldier gunned down while having a smoke.
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Yes, awful stuff – many thanks VJ
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Welcome, Paul
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Strong poem!!
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Many thanks Rajani 🙂
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A beautiful poem, as always. If it’s also a statement about smoking, I am an advocate of both medicinal marijuana and medicinal tobacco. Not commercial cigarettes, of course, as they contain practically no tobacco but include 7000 chemicals.
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I’m with you. The poem is not advocating, though it is admitting a role – the cigarette for stress or injury is at least something. And thank you ana.
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Yes! 👌
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Excellent. The link is undeniable, especially back in the day. A pack of four with each c-ration. 🙂
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i gather they had little to look forward to to anyway, but wounds and dying made it so miserable (as my relatives have said at any rate). Many thanks Bill.
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🙂
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