I’ve uncorked the perfume
today, of the day we first met.
I needed it. It was all blue:
oxygen and azulene,
neroli and pine trees,
jet fuel and you, always clean
even after strangers touched you
I know I’m still intact today
because when I breathe in
and remember how the sky blushed
the same sherbet symphony
you saw from the clouds above me,
I know there’s magic here
When I remember how we were,
delirious and threadbare
from months of longing
and a much-delayed flight—
and your shyness that night
because you were so afraid
you’d hurt me,
I know I’ll be OK
Without even remembering the rest,
all the doors you opened inside me
and how far I let you in,
it was enough
and I know this is something big
and worth keeping
just like this—
this story, this lifetime,
and not any other
because details matter
and another us
wouldn’t smell the same.
© Psyche Marks 2017