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...