Scented Powder

In the 60's, stores in shopping malls 
tempted buyers with bright displays 
offering gifts for every occasion 

the holidays the most obsessed 
valentine’s, birthdays and mother’s day 
bombarded with feel good commercials 

a time to send a gift to show you really care 
and for a mother who needs nothing, 
a delicate box with a fluffy powder puff 

a chance for her to dust herself in scents
of lilac, gardenia and violet. Most of it
unused, left in the back of a drawer forgotten.

That’s what I found in my mother’s dresser 
three boxes, one light green, the other pink, 
and the one I gave her, plastic engraved in gold.

Did she know that we loved her?