What Lips Remember

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 dVerse Prosery: Toni Morrison 

Here’s how to join in:
    Write a piece of prose, up to or exactly 144 words, including the given line.

"Lips forget what they have kissed."

–Toni Morrison, from, "Eve Remembering"

144 words 

image source 

     The door slammed on his way out...

     It rattled the windows, which until now she thought was only an expression, and shook the table holding the tray with the glasses of aged Bordeaux. One toppled. Making no movement to stop it, she watched the ox-blood liquid spread, reach the end of the cloth, and drip to the hand-knotted Isfahan rug.
     She reached her hand, now devoid of the blue diamond engagement ring (he had been very generous!), up towards her tear-streaked face and gently touched her lips with her fingertips.
     Speaking quietly to the room, empty but for her quivering spaniel (he had yet to grow accustomed to angry voices and slamming doors), she spoke what she believed to be the truest words she’d ever spoken, “They say ‘Lips forget what they have kissed,' "yet I promise you, I will never forgot your kisses.”

©2026 Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved  



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