What It Took To Bloom [Poetry]

Embrace

I wash the smell of smoke off my skin in the shower

The incense has dyed my hair like black tea

I hated the smell, 

I remembered how it choked me and my mother when you brought us to the temples to pray

I picked up my belongings from your wake and left

But everything still smells like your ashes

I rid the smell that clung to my skin with water

But it held on like the hug of a man who is not willing to part

I think I would miss this scent and steep in the char from every campfire and burning house

I will stop and wonder if that was you trying to hold me again