smoke (smok) n A suspension of particles in a gaseous medium. Like when the place where you live is in flames day after day and the resulting gaseous medium is the only option you have for continuing an exercise essential to staying alive: breathing.
Somewhere along humanity's march to future adventures, smoke became associated with, among other things, romance:
"I dim all the lights and I sink in my chair, the smoke from my cigarette climbs through the air, the walls of my room fade away in the gloom and I'm deep in a dream of you. The smoke makes a stairway for you to descend. You come to my arms, may this dream never end..."
Or:
"They, asked me how I knew, my true love was true? I of course replied, something deep inside cannot be denied...Now, laughing friends deride, tears I cannot hide, I just smile and say, when a lovely flame dies, smoke gets in your eyes."
If not romance-connected, it can be a dire warning:
"Smoke, smoke, smoke that cigarette. Keep on smoking 'til you smoke yourself to death. Tell St. Peter at the Golden Gate that you hate to make him wait but you've got to have another cigarette."
If you are the platoon leader making an assault on an enemy emplacement you call on a smokescreen to hide your advance.
If you are a Chicago gang member you hide in an alley waiting to smoke a member of a rival gang.
Pick-up line at meet market: "My friends over there wanted me to come tell you they think you're smokin'.
Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em (disambiguation). Slang for "Do what you want if you've got the means." Origin: World War II overseas officer telling his troops, "Smoke 'em if you got 'em" (cigarettes were hard to get) meant take a break.
If you are an elderly Pilgrim staring out your Russellville apartment window, day after day, at the dim outline of a tree that is all of ten yards away, hoping it will not explode into flames, then you acknowledge this is atonement for some long ago indiscretion.
There were, indeed, many trespasses and now so little time to seek forgiveness. Send more smoke.
