Smells Like Ivory Soap

She is going, going gone
You knew she'd leave you all along
Even though her body's here
There's no weight behind her tears
It all reeks of emptiness
A hollow sense that fills your nose
With nothing
You used to hold her close and smell her skin
Mingled with the scent of yours
and all of the places
She'd been in
Now she smells of something else
A sticky over-laundered smell
That can't quite mask
The vacancy
hopelessness smells
like
Ivory soap
And Cheer
and the heavy, humid
stench of fear
You don't know where she went
But only that she's gone
There's no one to ask
To answer your
Wheres and whys and who's
to blame.
Only this sad shell
who recoils from your touch
who simply says she's sorry
That you care so much.

ily, 2001