Bottle your scent

I would if I could,
Bottle your scent.
Preserved for posterity.
In small crystal vials
Labeled, stored on the kitchen shelf
High above behind pickle jars
Safe from prying, careless hands

So, when you are grown up
When you no longer need me
Trudging ahead to your independence
Calling me across spaces
From a faraway distance

I, old and wrinkled.
With fading memories
Of the delight you brought to me
I, alone in the empty silent house,
Pull out your old rag dolls
The busted car with three wheels
The shoes that I hid with squeaky heels

Racks of albums and yellowed
Pictures in which you grew up
My favorite here… wrapped in pink
Eyes closed, contented
Head resting on tiny hands
Scratched Cds I will play
To watch you cruise again
Or watch you mop the floor
With baby hands
Peering through the horn framed glasses
I will watch you
Mouthing the first syllables
Feeding the doll with the lotion bottle

I will bring down the vials
And sniff-in your innocence
The smell of your unwashed hair
Your pastry breath after a feed
Clean soft pink feet after a bath
Clothes dirty with food and mud.

And for a moment when I close my eyes
I can still touch and feel you
Like you were born yesterday