Fred Aiken Writing

i worked at a mall once,
at the coffee kiosk in the middle 
of the mall, right next to sephora,
whose workers would frequent
our little coffee kiosk before their shift,
during the breaks, or whenever it was slow in the mall
and they were just wanting to shoot the shit,

then one day, because the sephora employees
were so friendly with us and liked our coffee,
they decided to gift us bath bombs,
but the bath bombs were so colorful and bright,
i thought they were candy,
and at that time in my life,
i had never been into a sephora,
so i thought to myself, well, maybe it’s a candy shop
in which all the employees always smell like
floral perfumes,

i must say, i do not recommend biting down
on a bath bomb from sephora,
as they do not taste as delicious as they look,
though despite that incident,
i still have never been into a sephora,
not because i’m embarrassed, i promise,
but i cannot say that i would not be tempted
to bite into another one of their colorful, candy-look-alike bath bombs