Toujours Moi - Isaac Escobar

for Librada

Diabetes, that brat, that bruja

Sends my abuela to heaven in portions

Skimming a little life off the top when no one is looking

Think finger, think frosting

In the photo she looks just like my mother

Because she is

Because long term

That’s how our little lives fight back

There's a bottle of perfume that we pass among ourselves

The ones that look like her because she looked like us first

Worth more than all the frosting in the world

A fragrance that reaches into the body and lights a candle

In some of my darker corners

Toujours Moi costs twenty-three dollars online

And yet, sets off silent fireworks behind my closed eyes

Even as I remember, I forget

These bodies can do beautiful

These bodies can do treacherous

In the photo she is holding me

Because I am unable to stand on my own

Later, we will trade places

And if not her body,

I will hold this perfume, which is to say

We are holding each other now

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The Isaac Escobar in question is a poet/musician from Elgin, IL who holds a BA in creative writing from Columbia College in Chicago. Other things he has, at times, sweetly held? His cat (Hemmy), small beach stones, mugs of hot coffee, friendly hands, and books just to name a few. He hopes you find his poems equally sweet to hold.