LatinosUSA

reading Proust

for
the umpteenth time,

i
came across
the word buttercup

and,
like that
famous madeleine cookie

in
the beginning
of that long and wonderfully
difficult book,

i thought
back to a time
when me and my sister

used to walk
into the woods behind our house

and
pick these
little yellow flowers,

and
she taught me
how to hold them

under
her chin
where i could
see the reflection

of
the flower,
bright and yellow

and gone
the second i took
my eight-year-old hand away.