Long- Distance

Long -distance

He sent letters with foreign stamps,

and Chinese symbols and haiku poetry

scribbled on the outside of them.

She’d smell spices and seeds

she’d never tasted, Garam marsala,

Cumin and Pomegranate.

Then she’d read breathless between the lines

for the words that evaded her.

She’d begin to doubt herself.

And hunger assailing

she’d brew from his narrative

a story that fed hers.

She never really knew him.

She simply invented.

Copyright with Cathy Leonard 2016