For Poets United Mid-week Motif – Vanity
public domain photo
Cold Kiss
Your kiss goodbye at the airport
reminded me of how years ago,
I held a narcissus up to my lips
and tasted it
kissed it –
cold and bitter from the snow.
my vanity was thinking you
would love me forever,
how you would stay with me forever.
cold bitter kisses goodbye.
the thoughts of that narcissus kiss
still makes me shiver.
kanzen sakura 
Dec 06, 2017 @ 15:03:03
I totally felt that shiver! Wonderful poem.
Dec 06, 2017 @ 16:41:55
Thank you Susan.
Dec 06, 2017 @ 15:33:54
Beautifully evocative write, Toni. Love the image of ‘narcissus’ here .. so chilling!
Dec 06, 2017 @ 16:41:42
Thank you Sanaa
Dec 06, 2017 @ 15:46:19
Kisses goodbye and seem so selfish.
There in the end. Many times it becomes about self-preservation.
Nice comparison of the taste of the narcissus,
as I imagine the same feeling in that last kiss.
Dec 06, 2017 @ 16:41:29
the last kiss good bye is totally selfish, esp. on the part of the departing one – sort of, see what you will be missing? This last sop of the bread in the soup? Totally selfish. His lips felt like ice…truly.
Dec 06, 2017 @ 16:08:13
This is FANTASTIC. I felt it all, the kiss, the cold, the shiver. Spectacular!
Dec 06, 2017 @ 16:39:29
Thank you Sherry!
Dec 06, 2017 @ 17:01:02
This is beautiful.
Dec 06, 2017 @ 17:03:36
Dec 08, 2017 @ 17:00:25
Thank you Shawna and thank you for your comments to the Beast.
Dec 06, 2017 @ 17:09:09
I love the shiver of this, the comparison of that kiss to a flower symbolizing vanity and self-centeredness. Wonderful.
Dec 08, 2017 @ 17:03:43
Thank you De!
Dec 06, 2017 @ 17:11:37
In life we must accept that we will be disappointed now and then especially in love, so perhaps the narcissus did you favour telling you whatto expect in life. I really liked this poem.
Dec 08, 2017 @ 17:00:50
Thank you Hank. I think it told me for the best!
Dec 06, 2017 @ 20:42:02
Cold, desolate, beautifully melancholy.
Dec 07, 2017 @ 01:38:01
Oh a narcissus-kiss is really this cold, icy & death-like. Shiver is the response. You make the readers feel the words. A good one, Toni.
Dec 08, 2017 @ 17:02:47
Thank you Sumana
Dec 07, 2017 @ 10:26:10
Sometimes a “cold kiss,” is better than no kiss at all? Sometimes not…the last kiss remembered, so like the flower, cold and bitter….I guess one might as well keep that kiss to himself. He might say, I don’t want it, and throw it to the ground. So it becomes a ” cold, bitter, lonely kiss” after all.
I remember that last day, he called me back, but I did not return, I was late, there was no kiss to remember.
Dec 07, 2017 @ 10:56:17
How sad Annell. I knew my lover was never returning from Japan. I would rather he just leave, without the kiss. It took me 10 years to recover from that cold kiss.
Dec 07, 2017 @ 12:37:51
“cold bitter kisses goodbye.
the thoughts of that narcissus kiss
still makes me shiver.”- Ah, the thought of it makes me shiver too! Sigh!
Dec 07, 2017 @ 13:49:52
Those memories linger, even when we think we have let go of them and him.
Dec 07, 2017 @ 14:17:54
Yes ma’am. They certainly do.
Sent from Mail for Windows 10
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Dec 12, 2017 @ 12:15:49
Great poem… i love your writing style.
Dec 12, 2017 @ 21:04:26
Thank you!