Perfume, by Rumi Morkin

​Perfume
based on text set down in 1998
 
I walked him slowly to the car
and sat him in the seat,
I put his legs in, one by one
and checked his hands and feet.
 
With empty glazed Alzheimer eyes
In that once gifted head,
He stared out as I closed the door,
His words all left unsaid.
 
We drove up to the dentist
and I helped him up the stair,
I walked him in and guided him
to sit down on a chair.
 
His placid vacant look was aimed
at all that he could see:
the chairs and floor in front of him
but never once at me.
 
I took a glossy magazine
and sat there leafing through.
It held no interest for me:
the fashion world – who's who,
 
until – a large advertisement
for perfume caught my eye:
the sexy label "LONGING" made me
feel about to cry…
 
A young girl on a flight of steps
with autumn leaves, September…
the caption at the top invited:
MAKE A MAN REMEMBER.
 
I turned and sadly looked at him
and thought, as in a dream -
of how much perfume I would need
to bring forth just a gleam…
 
How much of it I'd need to wear
to bring him back to life –
Oh, how much, to remember that
I'm Miriam – your wife!
 
Rumi Morkin   

Rumi Morkin is the pen-name of Miriam Webber, born in 1934 in London, living in Israel since 1953. Miriam has written poetry on and off for many years while working at various handcrafts, which she has also taught, and since learning how to spin and weave, she has accumulated a large collection of sheep of many kinds and sizes. She regularly translates the tri-annual journal of the Alzheimer's Association of Israel from Hebrew into English. Her first chapbook The Ogdan Nasherei of Rumi Morkin was privately published in 2017 (Cyclamen & Swords Publishing). A second chapbook is planned. Miriam's poems have been published in the Deronda Review, and another poem received honorable mention in a national competition. Two short stories have been published: in Prosopisia and in Narrow roads.