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Memory Noir
Cigarette smoke and cheap perfume
linger in a dance of remembrance
An unmarried aunt who clerked in a store
her drug store pearls yellow with age
wrapped around my memories and my fascinations
I was eleven years old when she died
and I heard my parents say: “Floss was never really happy”
But to me, she always smiled and took a
nickel from her shiny black plastic purse when it
was time for us to leave…
putting the coin in my hand and a big red lipstick
kiss on my cheek
Looking back, I think it was my parents who were
unhappy with who she was
There were whispers of past husbands and
maybe a child-but no one ever talked about it out loud
In a black and white 1950's world Aunt Florence
was bigger than their disappointments
Living in the shadows of the post war mid-century
a ‘loser' could slip into one and hang on
She has outlived almost everything
I was encouraged to forget
and her life has become rich in my memory
-growing richer with time
(Lansdowne Pennsylvania: 1959)
linger in a dance of remembrance
An unmarried aunt who clerked in a store
her drug store pearls yellow with age
wrapped around my memories and my fascinations
I was eleven years old when she died
and I heard my parents say: “Floss was never really happy”
But to me, she always smiled and took a
nickel from her shiny black plastic purse when it
was time for us to leave…
putting the coin in my hand and a big red lipstick
kiss on my cheek
Looking back, I think it was my parents who were
unhappy with who she was
There were whispers of past husbands and
maybe a child-but no one ever talked about it out loud
In a black and white 1950's world Aunt Florence
was bigger than their disappointments
Living in the shadows of the post war mid-century
a ‘loser' could slip into one and hang on
She has outlived almost everything
I was encouraged to forget
and her life has become rich in my memory
-growing richer with time
(Lansdowne Pennsylvania: 1959)
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Memory Noir
Memory Noir
