Wearing a palimpsest 
of the past 
in the present.
Smells mark those 
we have lost,
but made alive
again through the 
power of scent. 

I’ve been wearing 
perfume left behind.
Calvin Klein’s ‘Contradiction’.
Its label reads
‘unisex’, I would 
wear it anyway.
Its scent helps
heal my pain. 
Just one spray, 
immerses me in  
olfactory sensations that 
bring Mum alive 
in the present. 
Still with me. 

That last bottle,
she left behind,
now on my 
bedroom fireplace mantlepiece.
Nearing its end,
I keep those
remaining drops unsprayed.