Nusette puts her hand on his.
She can’t look him in the eye.
And waits for him to retire.
She contains his shivering.
Something tells her to leave.
And yet she increases the pressure.
Nusette licks her tears from her upper lip.
They were never there.
As her nose rustles and reddens, he twitches.
Their hands moulding into a knot.
Nusette visualises the aged material, the spots.
The texture of death, their relationship.
Her innards going up in flames.
Her memory a spiral staircase leading to a room she dismisses.
Revisited in her nightmares and dreams, when she is happiest.
Why this room? And what is in it?
She can never remember.
Because she is always in it.
Holding his hand.
Whilst he is staring out of the window.

“Pot pourri” by Herbert James Draper (1863-1920)
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My name is Laura Gentile. I’m of German-Italian descent and I speak five languages such as English, German, French, Italian, Luxembourgish and I’m currently learning Romanian.
I hold a Master of Arts Degree in English Literature, Film and Visual Culture (Dissertation: The Decadent in Love with his Psychopomp: Thomas Mann's 'Death in Venice' and Adrian Lyne's 'Lolita') and a Master of Letters by Research in English Literature, Film and Visual Culture (Thesis: Romanticising Decadence and Aestheticising Death: Women as Projection Bodies and Mimetic Identities in Zola’s 'Thérèse Raquin', Schnitzler’s 'Dream Story', Süskind’s 'Perfume: The Story of a Murderer' and Eugenides’ 'The Virgin Suicides').
Author of "Within Paravent Walls". Pentalingual Idealist. Writer of psycho-corporeal Poetry. Creator of Croque-Melpomene & Les Femmes de la Décadence.
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