Stale Perfume
The sun cuts me open as I wake up.
Lean over, hug her for the first time in what feels like forever.
Sweat from her hot sleep
Tasting her.
We step into the shower
Heat clouding the bathroom
Vision fogged
Softly touch.
Wet shampoo dripping from velvet snakes
Slithering down her back.
They smell like a hot summer garden
Before a storm.
She smiles
Her lips red like cherry
Reach slowly to mine.
Her giggling mouth slips
Through me.
As we step out, the air cuts between us
We embrace, laughing
But it’s not quite enough
To save us from the cold.
As she dresses, I’m surprised with
Dry forced kisses between articles of clothing
Robotically preparing for the day.
She embraces me, smiling again and I can smell it on her
I can smell the sweet perfume, so lightly all over her
Just a tease of a taste of a whiff of the sweetest flower you could
Ever imagine.
If it was so light
Then why is it so thick in my memory?
She doesn’t wear the perfume anymore.
I only catch it stale on her clothes,
Hot viscous poison quietly running through Us Now
And Us Then
Like blood in your mouth;
It tastes sweet
But it’ll make you sick to your stomach.