The hall floor creaks.
Her shadow streaks the wall.
I pretend to sleep.
She leans forward for a forehead kiss.
She leans forward pouring a fog
of winter-smoke-gin-Chanel
across my face.
She leans forward spilling from her to me,
from her fox collar to my cheek,
her scented breath
passing clues from her grown world
to my small
restless self.

Ned Kraft, a librarian by trade, has published satire, poetry, and short stories in such places as Phoebe, Against the Grain, the South Street Star, Streetlight, and Gargoyle.  He studied under Claude Koch at LaSalle University, and Richard Bausch and Susan Richards Shreve in the George Mason University MFA program, where he received the Rinehart Fiction Award.