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.

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