Two Poems, by Holly Rowsell

a perfumed expiry

i’ll pack the near empty
glass bottle when visiting
home on weekends.

cinnamon and cardamom.
week old coffee.
fragrant receipt.

do you remember?
it’s the only one
you ever recognised.

in our lives still unlived
are there seven milliliters
of perfume left between us?

 

 

how have you been???

let’s get coffee!
i’ll drive to you this time.
you’ll bring a notebook
we’ll draw different pictures
on the same page, each
eat half the same muffin.
you’ll tell me stories of people
i know nothing about.

there’ll always be more
to say but the mugs go
empty and we live on
other sides of town. i’ll say
“let’s take the long way
to the car park.” we’ll walk instep
seven paces beneath the old
yellow tree, just to turn back
before the sun burns
our faces too red to touch.

i’ll see you in three years
though we don’t know that
now. linger outside the door
to your scratched up silver
hatchback. wait for me to look
down before peeling out of sight.
i’ll try asking you next time
if you remember it the way I do.

 

Published 29th of January 2025

 

About Holly Rowsell

Holly Rowsell (she/her) is a student living in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Aotearoa. She is a lover of cherries and an involuntary poet. You can find her work in Catalyst, Sweet Mammalian and Tarot, among other journals.
Holly answered a few questions on poetic influence and composition which can be read in full here