Laura Johnson is a poet and co-editor of Backchannels Literary Journal. Laura holds a MFA from The University of New Orleans. Laura’s work has appeared in Goat’s Milk Magazine, Thimble Literary Magazine, and others. Laura’s chapbook, Memento Vivere (Cabin Bear Books), is available at laurajohnsonwriter.com.
Melting Point
Last week at the candle shop in the mall
in one breath youth wafted past me:
mulled wine and gardenia —
which is to say incongruent and preposterous —
and I remembered the times
when she kissed me and the daffodils
grew taller as our fingers
twined together like the ivy that grew
up the side of her apartment building,
as we read books together —
twirling among the chapters, lines, paragraphs
— we fell down in tears and laughter
holding each other among the words;
later she wrote me love letters with sentences
clean like mountain streams — clear love
spelled out on the kind of paper you tie with a dark
red ribbon and keep in a locked drawer;
and my heart fluttered as I remembered the air
that clung like spiced honey to our skin
the night we made love as candle wax dribbled
onto the floor and whispers of melting points
of solids into liquids danced between us.