Today marked the first time
I used a pipe cleaner

For its actual purpose 

And suddenly

A simple action

Turned momentous.

I found the furred wire

In an old box of crafts

My mother had saved
From elementary school projects.


As I prodded the pipe

With the cleaner that was only ever
Supposed to be used
To bend into bracelets,
I couldn’t help thinking of you.

I used to only find kisses 

In cartoon form:
Stickers attached
To the backs of coloring books
.

My greatest childhood love?
Flipping on a flashlight to
Devour my latest book
Well past my bedtime.

So clean,
So pure,
So bliss.

So scrubbing away resin
Feels akin to washing away sins
Because like Adam and like Eve
Somewhere along the line
I lost my innocence.