Embalming air

[sun_sparks]

I played with the character in this some more when revisiting adat's comments. 

v2

Embalming air
 
Sun ghosts grey through
blue-hazed diesel fumes.
 
Sideways she pushes through, apologizing,
no belonging here.
 
Apple-sweet aromas of plastic-wrapped decay
spill from shadowed lanes.
Bile rises, swallowed hard.
 
There’s a pigeon, neck-broken,
lying by glass tower doors.
 
Salt-clammy sweat stings
on blotched-red AC-prickled arms.
No salve for her skin.
 
Grumbling offroaders block her crossing,
horns blasting.
Black-tinted window slides down,
a standing child, watching.
Not her baby, home.
One will die.
 
Deep-growled acceleration scythes
through embalming air.
She gasps.
Brakes squeal.

-----

Original

Embalming air
 
Sun ghosts grey through
blue-hazed diesel fumes.
 
She apologises through a group; 
alien here.
 
Apple-sweet aromas of plastic-wrapped
decay spill from shadowed lanes—
bile rises, swallowed hard.
 
Salt-clammy sweat stings
on blister-flushed AC-prickled skin.
 
She squeezes between jammed SUVs
horns erupting in frustration
followed by the eyes of a child from the sunroof beside.
 
Deep-growled acceleration scythes
through grime-textured air.
Brakes
squeal.
 
She turns to witness
the world dying
in irrevocable motion.