Fragrance

the scent on another
the stranger
it is other and perfect for this fact
be warned:
if you make a pact with it
it will reconfigure your memory of blue

so you sign yourself to it
in the present you
are now a forest
a library
of improbable meadows

it will be dark when you are sunless
it will be sunrise as you dress
you will torch paths for others
as Persephone herself strew her fragrance
passing through stairwells
which was was how he found her

he’s there now – and which he?
they meld with the shirt you pulled yourself out of
21 years earlier
the vague headache of youth
is a ghost come to greet you in summer
laced lovely with azure lies
and lily of the valley