'The Scent Of A Star-Crossed Love' Poem by Zahrin Nazah

That evening she found him,
something ancient inside her whispered,
There you are......
as though her heart had been searching for his
long before they were born.

She never knew
a hand could feel like home.
That trust could have a pulse,
That protection could exist
without a single promise.
Holding his hand,
she believed she had discovered
the shape of a good man.
Perhaps her first love!
Perhaps her last!

But the stars,
had memorised another ending.
He became someone else's forever.
She became the woman
who still carries yesterday
like perfume on an old scarf.

What lingers most
isn't his voice.
It's his scent.
Nothing extravagant;
an ordinary male fragrance,
the kind no one remembers.
Except her soul did!

Even now,
she pauses before shelves of perfume,
breathing in cedar, musk, rain, citrus......
Hoping one of them
will carry that forgotten note.

None ever do!

The men she met afterwards
wore fragrances worth fortunes.
Yet none of them
Smelled like home!
None carried that quiet warmth
that once rested on his shoulders
The kind that made her believe
she was safe, seen,
and deeply loved.

Sometimes, in the silence,
she wonders
if she was the only one
who called it forever.
Maybe she loved enough
for both of them.
Maybe that was always
their impossible constellation!

Close enough to light each other's sky,
never meant to become the same horizon.
Still... of everything time took,
it could never steal
the 'Fragrance'
she still searches for!

In a world
that no longer knows
how he smelled!