Sublimation Point

for M.B.

The answer is entropy—how smell works—
little bits of everything—always spinning
off from where they were—flying off at random   
into the world—which is to say into air.

There are other ways of solid to gas—
they’re substance specific, like iodine,   
or dry ice—how I felt when I saw you—
straight to a new state without passing   
through expected ones—as though enough   
of me left at the moment you appeared that   
I could never be whole without you—apply   
heat—I turn straight into ether.

Copyright Credit: “Sublimation Point” from Sublimation Point © 2004 by Jason Schneiderman. With permission of Four Way Books. All rights reserved.
Source: Sublimation Point (Four Way Books, 2004)