Sarah St Vincent Welch #137 - ekphrastic - Fiona Hall - Vaporised

snap of 'Vaporised' 2014 enamel on perfume bottles and mobile phone, car badge; 144 parts in 'Wrong Way Time' from the Venice Biennale, NGA 2016

with viewer

a cabinet of perfume bottles

unstopped

cuddled up

round and empty

faceted glass against smooth

my senses pique

behind the ear  

naked wrist extended

caressed over nostrils, lips

blush of décolletage

catching the whiff

white skulls on each bottle

eye sockets

I think of ambergris

(can't help it)

all the extinctions

then musk

aromas in my tongue's

memory

like hunger,

rose, scents to explain myself

over pungent sweat

sweet breath,

infinitesimal pheromone, there’s

sandalwood

vanilla

Chanel

to add and blend

I've always liked the smell of people

and my own

more than perfume

white enamel bone

metatarcarpals rest, painted

over the clunky cell phone, 

it's clasped like a clam

tempting us, way up front

delicate jointed phalanges

tender  

that phone’s out of date out of date

here on the slipping edge of time