White Shoulders

I am her child again... I'm wearing my pink flannel pajamas, the ones with tiny roses. I'm curled up in the middle of her big four-poster. And watching her dress for the party. She has just fastened the clasp of her gleaming white pearls It isn't often that she has an occasion to wear her pretty lace dress The dress that shows off her porcelain white shoulders The most exciting thing my parents usually do.. is to go to the movies. Watching Errol Flynn, as he swash buckles his men through the Sherwood forest. But tonight is special! They are dressing up! And she looks so beautiful! She has pink cheeks, and red lips, and her hair is shining in auburn curls. Oh! How different, how wonderful, my mother looks tonight! When only an hour ago, she was standing at the kitchen sink, wearing that threadbare apron Tonight she looks like one of those Hollywood ladies that grace the cover of her Photoplay magazines! She's slipping on her high heeled shoes, then she reaches for her White Shoulders perfume. "Here, darling girl", as she reaches over to me and puts a dab under each of my ears. She kisses my forehead, and says "Be good for Grandma"..... "See you in the morning. Love you Sweetheart. Sweet dreams". She tucks me in, turns off the light... and I am her child again, safe, and warm, and filled with the knowledge that I am loved drifting away on a cloud of White Shoulders....... Oh...to be loved like that just one more time.... of being wrapped in the fragrance of her love Oh... if only for a moment I could be her child again..... --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ("White Shoulders" was my mother's favorite scent to wear...