Répliques

My little Pumpkin,

I like to think about other girls

sometimes,

but the truth is

if you ever left me

I'd tear my heart out

and never put it back.

There will never be anyone like

you.

How embarrassing.

Water falls from the bright air

It falls like hair

Falling across a young girl's shoulders

Water falls,

Making pools in the asphalt

Dirty mirrors with clouds

And buildings inside

It falls on the roof of my house

It falls on my mother and on my hair

Most people call it rain

We have plenty of matches in our house.

We keep them on hand, always.

Currently our favourite brand is Ohio Blue

Tip,

though we used to prefer Diamond brand

That was before we discovered Ohio Blue

Tip matches.

They are excellently packaged, sturdy

little boxes with dark and light blue and

white labels

with words lettered in the shape of a

megaphone,

as if to say even louder to the world :

"Here is the most beautiful match in the

world, it's one-and-a-half-inch soft pine stem

capped

by a grainy dark purple head, so sober and

furious

and stubbornly ready to burst into flame,

lighting, perhaps, the cigarette of the

woman you love,

for the first time, and it was never really

the same

after that.

All this we will give you."

That is what you gave me, I

become the cigarette and you the match,

or I

the match and you the cigarette, blazing

with kisses that smoulder toward heaven.