“Perfume,” “Lipstick,” and “Girdle”

By Erica McGee

Perfume

I dab the scent upon my waiting neck

It fills the air, a cloud of sensuous air

Remembering we took that wonderous trek

Each time I smell those roses I do care

About you and the way you surprised me

With little gifts, revealed to my own eyes

Before our love I struggled just to see

My loneliness filled with the tears I cried

The smell, it takes me back to special times

A clear, belonging place we grew to know

Was home, we built it with our youthful crimes

My perfume takes me back, I long to go

Like the wind blows effortless in trees

The memories I grab onto and seize.

Lipstick

Red and pink and purple matte and gloss

The colors of my personality

I paint it on my lips, absorb the cost

Of fooling everyone that I do see

It makes me feel together and made up

Of confidence and power that I hold

When inside insecurity creeps us

I know that I should do what I am told

A face that’s free of any tiny trace

Of product that is purchased for a fee

Will convey all the truth that’s on my face

Projecting what I want you all to see

It’s me, it’s me, reality is free

But that’s a risk that truly cannot be

Girdle

Please don’t hold me so tight, I cannot breathe

You smother, smash and sometimes I must moan

I feel if this persists my heart will seize

It’s like a dog that’s waiting for a bone

This constant push and pull tears me apart

Not understanding why, you have to cling

I put you on and then I know it starts

Such misery our closeness always brings

A silhouette, a painful hourglass

If I was free to take in all the air

A different way the hours they would pass

I’d dance and clap and sing without a care

Of what the world would judge and truly see

Could be a new and better love would be