Alaina

15

To me, you were the ghost
Of someone who had once been caramel
So fragrant, so ethereal, with my chocolate
To me you always smelled of nature, a sweet honeysuckle
And I would walk with you, barefoot,
Smelling your sweetness every night.

And you smiled at me each night.
The pale light from the kitchen windows shrouded the yard in a ghost,
As we walked through the dark, barefoot.
Your voice tasted like caramel
To my ears and your breath was honeysuckle
In my mouth and I was your bittersweet chocolate.

I had always been your too bitter, dark chocolate,
Or so you told me every night
When we hid amongst the honeysuckle
In my backyard. We were ghost
Children, and I stole my ma’s expensive caramel
To feed you as we sat, barefoot

In between the branches of the honeysuckle bush. My barefoot
Brushing yours, your skin like velvet chocolate
And mine appearing to be caramel.
You would talk and hold me every night
In a town that could only be described as a ghost
That constantly smelled of malicious souls and tasted like our sweet honeysuckle

Bush. The scent of one million honeysuckle
Flowers , their petals crushed under my barefoot.
The ones in my yard have always been the sweetest. Their scent fills me like a ghost
And you always said my lips tasted like honey and rich people chocolate
And that every time you kissed me it had to be at night
Because that was the only time they were sweeter than the expensive caramel.

I remember my mom yelled at me because her caramel
Had gone missing and she knew it was me because I was her sweet honeysuckle
Child that lived to devour all of the sweets, and she knew I snuck out each night
To see that boy, that troublesome barefoot
Boy. The boy who I had told her tasted like my favorite dark chocolate
So she turned you into a part of my past, a ghost.

A ghost that would never call me your caramel
Again or smell like chocolate when you kissed me under our hanging honeysuckles.
And every night I’ve dreamt of you, beautiful and barefoot.