Anthology

J & B

Lelie M. Lowey

A long, slow, deep

  inhale of her

  amber warmth

offers a remembrance

  of comforting, and

  an odd sense of security.

The taste is but a vague,

  distant memory from

  a mere drop on my

  swollen gums.

Too young to identify,

  too young to care

  or realize harm from

  the drop – only soothing.

At my clueless teen age,

  I recounted this

  indelible memory

  of so long ago,

mitigated by my father’s

  desire to dig out

  a crated bottle from

the deep recesses of the

  lower kitchen cabinet