Timothy Pilgrim

Poem to name perfume after



He could have awakened dead

but didn’t -- instead, clipped her poems,

stories, carried them crumpled,



reread each over tea,

hung her picture beside Van Gogh’s,

then moved it to Matisse.



He tried to catch glimpses

of her in flushed daze,

rushing for a train,



swinging in the park,

closing nighttime blinds,

pelted down by rain --





once, eased close behind

in crowd, breathed deep,

inhaled her scent,



touched sleeve by accident --

in sideways glance, hoped to see

her eyes change, gray



to green. He believed each day a test --

name perfume lingering when she left.

Obsession.


Timothy Pilgrim, a journalism professor at Western Washington University, is a Pacific Northwest poet who lives in Bellingham, Washington, and has published over 80 poems, mostly in literary journals and anthologies of poetry, such as "Idaho's poets: A Centennial Anthology."

Current Issue:
January 2011

James H. Duncan
Douglas Durkee
Taylor Graham
Michael Keshigian
Richard Luftig
Timothy Pilgrim
Bill Roberts
Jari Thymian
Kelsey Upward
Margaret Walther

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