Perfume

I recall my mother's voice
singing solemn hymns of joy.
Hours in the living room
the clock was ticking
and her perfume
filled the room...
I remember Rosie's eyes,
and how a heart could swell
inside the chest of a child.
Seconds turned to hours when
I came so close that I could sense
her scent filling the sky...
I remember cigarettes and alcohol,
sweet 16
and bored 18,
raging against the machine,
revolutionary dreams,
broken hearts and poetry...
I remember reading Revelations.
The Apocalypse coming any time soon.
I got so scared,
I couldn't sleep for a year.
Still, years later, I slept with the lights on.
Sometimes I still do.
(Shashe, Notwane, Chobe)
I remember when I first saw you.
You were shining like a highway
leading out of misery.
I remember yesterday,
when you asked me
in your childish way:
"Do you think time will have its way with us?"
and I said: "Babe, it already has"
And I remember your eyes,
when I said: "Life is now or never"
And you said: "Babe, I think we"ll live forever"
and your eyes were so full of hope when you said it,
that it made me cry.
I still don't know why
it made me recall my mother's voice
singing solemn hymns of joy.
Hours in the livingroom,
the clock was ticking
and her perfume
filled the room...