A THOUSAND SPLENDID DYSTOPIAS

I write the symbols
Trying to smell them
In memory: that mistress
Of deception, who resides in
And spawns my being
I rummage the smells
In metaphors and processes
The air I breathe
Cat pee, and gardenias
I walk down the corridor
Past room after room
Camphor, sandal, soap
Inscribe the otherness of
Dog-coat, musk, mouldy fish
Transposed in dream
Salty loveless touch
Of bare skin to skin
The unpleasant odour
Of post-coital sweat
Coffee, stale, and rain
Smouldering tobacco
Cat scratches and pustules
With the sticky smell of blood
I write the symbols
For the mistress to note
And reflect in nostalgia
At some future dystopia
On the thousand splendid ones
One has lived through, before.