It's Still Life

Un Goût de Paris

You see,
my mother only wore one perfume.
I don’t count Avon’s Skin-So-Soft ‘cause
Mum used that as an insect repellent,
although to me it smelled like a toilet
freshener in my Aunt Suzy’s outhouse.
Anyway, Mum wore “Evening in Paris” –
Dad always gave her a bottle at Christmas.

Now,
my little sister, who had just discovered
she could crawl out of her crib by herself,
and needn’t scream like a banshee until
Mum retrieved her and carried her off
like a limp sack of potatoes, also loved
the gallic scent of “Evening in Paris”.

Anyway,
one afternoon, she escaped her crib,
when she was meant to be napping,
and found Mum’s “Evening in Paris”
in the bathroom. Some of it she
poured on the floor, but most of it,
she poured straight down her throat.
That’s the closest she ever got to Paris.

for dVerse: A Drink on the House