2. summer long ago
the smell of your mother
in the kitchen maybe
or doing the ironing
when she breezed past
the cotton smell of her dress
fresh air & meadows
clean & perfume musky shadows lent
to you she was just your mother
always alone & making do
with your dad long gone
to me she was a dream
destined to remain a dream
then you away and I knew
the warm smell of her neck
her hair, I knew her lips
just as I imagined, dreamt,
that summer I knew
the taste of your mother.