Before and After
Blue sky in one
eye, gloom in
the other,
rain rushes
towards me like Legion.
Steam rises from pavement
like smoke on a field
after a battle,
the sun reflecting from new
pools,
stabbing both eyes.
Perfume
A stranger brushes me
in a crowd,
her scent
every memory
of you.
Awakened Words 
I like it when the steam rises from the pavement as the rain hits it after a hot day, not so much when the sun strikes my eyes though.
Your second poem is most effective!
I can identify with the second poem. Scents really stay with a person, I think…and CAN really trigger memories – for better or worse.
really love how you painted such scenery in the eyes… the sun stabbing both eyes in the end – horrific and beautiful all at the same time…
ah, smelling the scent attached to a past lover on a stranger – I love how you brought significance to such a small moment.
oh i def like the second…how just that brush can bring back such memory…you got a lot in a very few words with that one mark….
Yes, number two really packed a punch. But I love how you started your first poem…excellent…and then with the sun stabbing both eyes…whoo!
Nicely done, Mark, with two very different moods.For the first, I need sunglasses–more so if the pooling is not blood in the field. For the second, I have no defense. But I don’t think I want any.
Both are great poems. I especially love the second.
The scent one is stunning!
The battlefield association is most excellent.. the legions.. but truly the image of scent in the second one tells a whole story.
Love the second one. Also, the image in the first of
Steam rises from pavement
like smoke on a field
after a battle,
the first one is stunning and the second one’s very smoothing and evocative….
The first is powerful, but unfortunately, the second overshadows it when posted in tandem as it’s one we all relate to–scents and the memories they evoke. Both well done.
oh a perfume can surely conjure up memories… scent always hits our emotional center unprepared and unfiltered by the brain