No One Remembers the Girl

by Tobi Alfier

For 72 seconds in a long long life she wore

the crown of poppies he placed in her hair

as they danced.

She knew she was only borrowing him,

taking a man that wasn’t hers to take.

He was so in love with her, the smell of her neck,

their lovemaking, even just holding her wrist to his lips—

he did not want to live without her.

She completed him.

She knew she would move on to be that girl—

a scent rarely wakened and never thought of,

growing older, wearing the grace of knowing him

like exquisite embroidery on a somber night’s cloak.

* * * * *

Tobi Alfier is a multiple Pushcart nominee and multiple Best of the Net nominee. Both “Slices of Alice & Other Character Studies” and a reprint of “Sanity Among the Wildflowers” were published by Cholla Needles Press. She is co-editor of San Pedro River Review (www.bluehorsepress.com).